Iran will set up a drone factory in Yelabuga, some 1,000 kilometers from Moscow. The goal is to create a more sophisticated, faster and more efficient unmanned vehicle.
It is further proof of the alliance between Iran and Russia. Iranian and Russian leaders are plans to install a new drone factory in the town of Yelabugaabout a thousand kilometers from Moscow, the Wall Street Journal reports this Sunday, citing a source from a country aligned with the United States.
In the coming years, the Yelábuga plant will have the capacity to produce six thousand Iranian drones, which are already being used in the war against Ukraine. Moscow uses unmanned aerial vehicles to attack civilian infrastructure and the Ukrainian energy sector.
The White House had already warned, in December, that Iran and Russia would be considering a joint production of drones. Now the two countries’ plans seem increasingly clear, with the American newspaper also reporting that Moscow and Tehran officials visited the site where the factory will be built on January 5.
The Iranian delegation included General abdollah mehrabihead of the Research and Self-Reliance Corps of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Aerospace Force, and Ghassem Damavandian, chief executive of Iran’s Quds Aviation Industry, a defense company the United States views as instrumental in designing and manufacturing the country’s drones.
In the Ukraine war, Russia has used Shahed-136 suicide drones. Although they are not the most effective on the market, they are comparatively cheaper, which means that Moscow can carry out multiple attacks.
However, the air defense systems used by Ukraine are becoming more sophisticated, due to donations from the West, forcing Iran and Russia to work together to improve configurations of the Shahed-136 drone. The goal is to make the unmanned vehicles fly faster and farther.
The factory in Yelabuga is expected to produce these more sophisticated drones. It is not yet clear when it will open, nor when it will start producing them.
Source: Observadora
