Iran and Russia to build a factory to produce thousands of drones in Russia
Russia and Iran are planning to build a new factory to produce at least 6,000 Iranian drones for use in the war in Ukraine, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The new factory, which will be built in Russia, will be part of the emerging military alliance between Tehran and Moscow.
Info revealed that a high-ranking Iranian delegation visited Russia in early January to check the site where the factory is planned to be built, and to find out the details of how to start and operate the project.
The new drone factory is part of a billion-dollar deal between Russia and Iran, noting that Moscow provided Tehran with weapons captured on the battlefield in Ukraine.
Kyiv and its Western allies accuse Russia of using Iranian-made drones to attack Ukrainian targets, most notably energy facilities, while Iran has repeatedly denied sending weapons to any party for use in war, but it admitted for the first time last September that it had provided Moscow with such aircraft before the start of the war in late February 2022.
Russian and Iranian officials finalized the deal during a meeting in Iran in early November, and the two countries are moving quickly to transfer key designs and components that could allow production to begin within months, three officials familiar with the matter said in interviews with The Washington Post.
The officials said the deal, if fully realized, would mark a further deepening of the Russian-Iranian alliance that has already provided crucial support for Moscow’s faltering military campaign in Ukraine.
And by getting its assembly line off the ground, Russia could dramatically increase its stockpile of the relatively inexpensive and highly destructive weapons systems that in recent weeks have changed the character of the war in Ukraine.
US Intelligence officials said Russia has deployed more than 400 Iranian-made attack drones against Ukraine since August, with many of the aircraft being used in strikes against civilian infrastructure targets such as power plants.
