Speaking of drones, these days I am reading news about Russia buying drones from Iran (Shahed-129 and Shahed-191) and that the Russian delegation has already visited the Kasan air base several times to see for themselves their capabilities.
As for this particular news it's hard to say if it is true unless some evidence comes out.
- On one hand the media has been filled with a lot of nonsense lately (like the recent thing about Russia needing the Iranian satelite to spy on Ukraine lol). Neither side has either approved or rejected these claims.
- On another hand there has been a military relationship between Iran and Russia (clear from things like the naval drills over the past years in Indian Ocean and soon in North Atlantic Ocean). Also considering that Iran's drone industry is leaps and bounds ahead while the airforce is behind in regular manned planes, this could be true and about a swap (Shahed family for Sukhoi technology).
Ever since this comment, some more information has come out (both sides are still denying it though).
1. Iran's Army commander recently confirmed the Su-35 purchase which approves the second part of my comment above.
2. An unknown picture surfaced where they claim they've shot down a Shahed-136 drone!
![](https://ip.bitcointalk.org/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FXHcjJbl.jpg&t=665&c=oHnB3qgDxIUmQw)
There is no image of video of it flying or being shot down or even if the picture is recent or from Ukraine not somewhere else like Syria which they've been used against terrorists.
If this is indeed Shahed-136, due to their size, material and speed they are impossible to track and shoot down specially when they are diving. Not to mention that they are used in a swarm and in coordination with everything else, not as a single unit to be shot down alone.
Which means if the image is not all propaganda, then it is the remainder of the drone after successful impact and destruction of its target.
The way these loitering munitions (or the layman terms: suicide drones) work is that a swarm of them are deployed easily from for example back of a truck:
![](https://ip.bitcointalk.org/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FfNyuK8Z.jpg&t=665&c=DukGSnSdzBe3-w)
They remain in the sky until they detect their target(s) and are equipped with AI and are usually accompanied with a "mothership" that acts like the commander and can perform air-to-air fights, shoot its own missiles or deploy its own drones out of the back (I don't think the "mothership" is sold though since it is too high tech and is basically considered classified).
If the picture is not pure propaganda then what happened could be something like this for example:
A RU fighter plane is getting close for operation, the NATO intelligence reports that so they activate Buk-M1 (medium-range surface-to-air missile systems), the stealth drones already dominating the sky detect Buk-M1 and send a single unit of the S-136 to dive for the kill. After the success was confirmed and the operation ends, the rest go back home.
![](https://ip.bitcointalk.org/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2F7p3FTHq.jpg&t=665&c=nLv4mHS7CdC6Sg)
You can see them in the video below during a military exercise from a while ago (the last 2 pictures are from the video).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcZEJ40Gt9MIf there is any interest I'll try to post more analysis if more information comes out.