The Russians are failing to secure ample supplies of Shahed drones from Iran

The Russians have failed to deliver shahed kamikaze drones from Iran in large numbers, while the Iranians are unlikely to increase their production because their “energy system is collapsing.”

This was reported on national television by the Chairman of the Ground Forces Reserve Council Ivan Timochko, reports a Ukrinform correspondent.

“So far, they have failed to secure large numbers of supplies of Shaheds from Iran. And especially now that we understand Iran’s concerns about numerous issues, it is unlikely that they will increase production for Russia as their energy system is on the verge of collapse,” he informed.

Also read: Destroy the Ukrainian Defense Forces Shahed Drone depot in the Oryol region of Russia

Tymochko explained that the Russians are indeed trying to increase their own production of kamikaze drones, but that they lack qualified workers to do so.

“I’m not talking about other specialists – they don’t have enough workers to, for example, produce a certain group of parts or assemblies on the production lines. This means that they also end up building factories that are quite vulnerable.” “In reality, they are trying to somehow spread out the production of these parts to minimize the risks,” Tymochko said.

He noted that Russia’s introduction of changes and simplifications in Shahed’s components is part of attempts to increase its resistance to electronic warfare.

“They are trying to change their outline or their detectability or their visibility from the air to prevent our air defense systems from tracking them. They also try to make them as cheap as possible in parallel lines to minimize the dependency on specific components. That’s why “… we see that they are increasing in mass, but they cannot improve these Shaheeds to an extent that would allow them to evade our air defense systems,” Tymochko explained.

He informed that the main task of Shaheds at the moment is not to hit targets, but to weaken Ukrainian air defense.

As Ukrinform previously reported on December 22, The New York Times reported that government institutions in Iran are closed or operating on short working days, educational institutions have switched to online mode, and industrial enterprises have been in blackout, leading to an almost complete shutdown due to production losses the energy crisis.