Russia started to receive combat drones sent by Iranfor use in the war in Ukraine, but many of them have already been found to be defective, the US Department of Defense said on Tuesday, as quoted by AFP.

Drones of the Iranian armyPhoto: Twitter

“Russian transport planes loaded drone equipment at an airfield in Iran and then flew out of Iran to Russia over several days in August,” Pentagon spokesman Brigadier General Pat Ryder said.

According to him, the operation “is probably part of Russia’s plans to import hundreds of Iranian drones of various types.”

“Our information indicates that the drones involved in this transmission have already experienced multiple failures,” he said, without providing further evidence to support the claim.

Both Russian and Ukrainian forces have deployed and lost numerous reconnaissance and attack drones during the six-month war.

Partly because of international sanctions against Moscow, Russian industry is struggling to produce its own drones, Ryder said, explaining why Russia has turned to Iran to import the Mohajer-6 and Shahed drones.

The drones are expected to be used by Russian forces in Ukraine for air-to-ground attacks, electronic warfare and battlefield targets.

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