About Iranian UAVs, Again...

Recall, more than two weeks ago I stressed: 

US media continue to spread this BS about Iranian UAVs for Russia. Here is official statement from Kremlin from July 19 as reported by NTV

Now Kremlin finally lost its patience:

Moscow has denied claims made by the Washington Post suggesting that Iran is supplying Russian forces with combat drones to be used in Ukraine. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told journalists on Tuesday that the Bezos-owned newspaper has engaged in quite a bit of “information stuffing” lately, and rejected claims that Moscow had received a shipment of UAVs from Tehran. Nevertheless, Peskov noted that Russia’s relations with Iran are “developing dynamically” and would continue to do so. The response comes after the Washington Post published an article on Monday stating that Iran had sent a shipment of drones to Russia, citing anonymous US and allied officials. The report says Tehran had transferred a number of Mohajer-6 and Shahed-series drones to Moscow and that many of them were already malfunctioning.

People believing this obvious BS is based on two fundamental premises:

1. The only war at which the West is any good is the info-war, or, in layman's lingo--spreading BS. All US MSM media ARE in business of spreading BS. 

2. Military-technological illiteracy of people. See my ridicule of all those Dimas, Podolyakas, other "insiders" who wouldn't now shit from shinola when it comes to modern warfare. 

I can totally see Bezos, a colorless purveyor of "information technologies" and sending shit to people via Amazon, having a viral hatred of Russia and Russians and thus ordering this cabal of woke psychos at WaPo to print anything discrediting Russia, the more outlandish--the better. But let me, again, get back to these fictional Iranian drones, that even Kirby has to admit.

the White House toned down its allegations. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby admitted that Washington did not actually see any evidence of a deal.

“We’ve seen no indications of any sort of actual delivery and/or purchase of Iranian drones by the Russian Ministry of Defense,” Kirby said. Tehran has rejected claims of any drone deals with Moscow, insisting that it would not take a side in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine and would continue to push for a peaceful resolution.

I will concentrate on military-technological aspect. 

A. Russian Armed Forces have enough UAVs of the most important class--and that is tactical battlefield recon drones--which provide situational and tactical battlefield awareness in abundance.  Those also are the ones which provide targeting and fire correcting for all types artillery and some other fire means. This is Orlan-10:

Which Russia has in thousands. It can fly for 16 hours and has a command range of 120 kilometers, or 600 kilometers autonomous. This is also one of those UAVs in which, of course by Ukie and Western media, is almost "everything" of Western origin. Of course, as always, they forgot to mention the fact that in case of Orlan-10 it is a classic COTS (commercial off the shelf) UAV which can use both imported and domestic (widely available) electronics which it does. When imported electronics is cheaper--you may meet it, when it becomes more expensive--Russian one is being used. The issue here is, of course, that for people who "study" Russia from WSJ or CNN, the idea that Russia has a developing and increasingly sophisticated electronics industry seems totally alien. That leads us to the next point:

 

B. What many fanboys-masturbators to shiny military toys want to see, because they watched too much Hollywood, played too many video-games and failed higher math with physics, they want to see, nay, they demand to see operations conducted by those strike UAVs. They want to see it because this is their limit of understanding combined arms combat operations and, as a simple example, morons cannot even conceive the fact that in the environment still saturated with all those Stingers, Iglas and Osa-Ms with Buk-M1s on Ukie side, the issue of annihilation of the masses of Ukie troops by the artillery, such as monstrous Tornado MLRS (just an example) with its range of up 200 kilometers and now GLONASS guided rockets on the targeting from inexpensive Orlan-10 is orders of magnitude more effective than sending there expensive and not designed for such purposes Russian-made strike UAV Orion. 

Yes, Russia produces these long-range strike UAVs too. Those fly to 250 kilometers controlled and have endurance of 24 hours. 

But here is the issue--you cannot explain to some fucking "reporter" or gamer what real operations are and why people go for 6 academic years (in Russia) to military academies and study there physics, math, operations theory, tactics, operational art and then go to war colleges and the best end up in Academy of General Staff and command formations from divisions to military districts. It is also impossible to explain to those people, Bezos that also means you, because civilian and military engineering differ dramatically starting at the tactical applications, that Russian Armed Forces operate in a fully Netcentric paradigm which implies for already serious drones such as Orion, let alone anything even more advanced, a completely different set of comm and control technology which is extremely high end and Iran simply has no access to it and is not able to develop it. 

And this is just one such reason among many others why this Iranian UAVs BS is, well, a BS. And here is the 3-year old piece of news which may give some "insight".

In eight year Russia has increased its operational UAV fleet to over 2,000 UAV systems, with new types currently under development.

This was three years ago. Moreover, needless to say that apart from issues of C4 for UAVs which I only briefly touched upon above, there is this issue of... drum roll... requirements. Yes, yes, those things based on decades upon decades, of operational, design and engineering experience which is written in blood and is a thing which armies like Russian one live and die by. Needless to say, that Iran, for all its sometimes impressive achievements is nowhere near in technological development which can satisfy these requirements. This is not plug and play, guys, sort of deal. But then again, in circle, we come back to the most important issue--Russia has a required number of UAVs, be that recon-targeting ones, or strike ones. 

But in the end, that is why Russia doesn't buy navy ships of any significance from, say, China, as some overly optimistic (a euphemism for ignorant) Russian military "experts" once were suggesting loudly, because Chinese ships do not satisfy requirements. Nor, the obvious complete import substitution for a whole Russian Military-Industrial Complex is a hollow phrase--latest GLONASS and Liana satellites are 100% on Russian-made electronics--it is a fully working and being implemented program, which also includes these beloved by Hollywood-educated "experts" UAVs. But in the end, did it occur to any moron in WaPo that the country which produces such things as SU-35 or SU-57, or Ka-52 serially will have very little problem developing and building own UAVs. It is 2022, not 1999, people.  And that is why I was calling this WaPo, Sullivan and other "reputable" sources from the US about Iranian UAVs a BS from the git go. But then again, what do I know?

P.S. Did I mention Russia's space-based ISR? Don't tell WaPo and Bezos about Liana, they may get ulcers.