Moscow and Tehran are moving ahead with plans to build a new factory in Russia that could make at least 6,000 Iranian-designed drones for the war in Ukraine, the latest sign of deepening cooperation between the two nations, officials from a country aligned with the US told the Wall Street Journal (WSJ).
As part of their emerging military alliance, the officials said, a high-level Iranian delegation flew to Russia in early January to visit the planned site for the factory and hammer out details to get the project up-and-running, according to WSJ.
The two countries are aiming to build a faster drone that could pose new challenges for Ukrainian air defences, the officials said.
Tehran has already provided Moscow with hundreds of drones it has used to hit military and civilian targets in Ukraine, US officials have said. And the Biden administration has warned that Russia and Iran are developing a "full-fledged defense partnership." The Journal said the White House says Moscow was training Iranian pilots to fly Russian jet fighters, with the intent of sending Tehran those jets by year's end.
In December, the White House warned that Moscow and Tehran were considering whether to build a joint drone-production line in Russia.
Now, the US-aligned officials said, the talks have morphed into concrete plans with the January 5 visit to the Russian town of Yelabuga, about 600 miles east of Moscow. According to WSJ, they toured the empty site where leaders from the two nations are planning to build a new factory that can produce at least 6,000 drones in the coming years.
The officials said the Iranian delegation was led by Brig. Gen. Abdollah Mehrabi, head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Aerospace Force Research and Self-Sufficiency Jihad Organization, and Ghassem Damavandian, the chief executive of Iran's Quds Aviation Industry, a key defence manufacturer that the US says is central to developing and building the country's drones.
Russian and Iranian officials didn't respond to requests for comment, WSJ said.
So far, Iran has provided Russia mostly with so-called suicide drones, known as the Shahed-136, that contain a modest amount of explosives that detonate when the unmanned vehicles crash into their targets, US and Ukrainian officials told WSJ.
Russia has used the drones to target Ukraine's power grid in an attempt to cripple the country's electricity supply during the cold winter and undermine morale, WSJ said, adding that over time, Ukraine's air defences have succeeded in largely neutralising the drone threat.
The Shahed-136 is a slow-moving and loud drone with propeller engines, making it relatively easy to spot and shoot down. Ukraine has shot down more than 540 drones since they started appearing over the country's skies last fall, according to the nation's air force.
( With inputs from ANI )
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