Iran providing Russia 'turnkey' weapons technology — defense expert

Anatolii Khrapchynskyi, Deputy Director General of an electronic warfare (EW) equipment manufacturing company, stated this on Espreso TV.

"Iran is transferring weapons concepts to Russia with meticulously developed technical design documentation. In other words, they're providing turnkey technology transfers. Moreover, Iran not only supplies the technologies but also additionally equips these strike systems with components.

Therefore, it's important to understand that Russia has established reliable supply chains for components, particularly through China, since the communication systems that are now widely discussed in the existing Shaheds are manufactured specifically in China. These are direct deliveries and cooperation with Iran to find solutions to make this system work," Khrapchynskyi noted.

According to the defense enterprise development director, Russia's main goal is to create a controllable airborne strike system.

"After all, the Iskander-K cruise missiles attacking Ukraine are programmed for specific flight trajectories and particular targets. If we talk about the Shahed, which was first used, it was essentially employed as a loitering munition with precise flight tasks programmed with defined coordinates.

Thanks to our electronic warfare capabilities, we significantly reduced their accuracy or diverted them beyond city limits, where mobile fire groups would then engage them," Khrapchynskyi emphasized.

The expert added that the enemy is currently adapting Shaheds for real-time control capability.

"This is a significantly more complex system that allows the use of existing algorithms within these drones, including an onboard computer that can identify targets and inform the operator about the percentage likelihood of mission success," Khrapchynskyi explained.

• On the night of January 13, Russians struck Ukraine with ballistic missiles and UAVs, killing 4 people in the Kharkiv region, injuring 5 in Odesa, and damaging residential and commercial buildings in the Kyiv region.