Alexander Topchy14:34, 10.03.23

Russia believes that the supply of captured Western weapons to Iran will encourage Tehran to continue to support Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Russia could get some of the weapons and equipment provided by the US and NATO on the battlefield and send them to Iran. There, according to the US, Tehran will try to redesign the systems.

CNN writes about this , citing four sources familiar with the matter. Over the past year, they said, there have been several cases of Russian forces seizing man-portable weapons, including Javelin anti-tank systems that Ukrainian forces have been forced to leave on the battlefield from time to time.

Sources note that in many of these cases, Russia sent the equipment to Iran for disassembly and analysis, so that it is likely that the Iranian military would try to create their own version of the weapon.

Russia believes that the supply of captured Western weapons to Iran will encourage Tehran to continue to support Russia’s war in Ukraine.

US officials do not believe the problem is widespread or systematic, and the Ukrainian military has made it a habit since the start of the war to report any loss of US-provided equipment to the Pentagon. Still, US officials acknowledge that the issue is difficult to track.

It is not yet known whether Iran has successfully reverse-engineered any of the American weapons seized in Ukraine. But Tehran has already demonstrated great skill in developing weapons systems based on US equipment captured in the past.

For example, Iran’s key weapon, the Toophan anti-tank guided missile, was modified from the American BGM-71 TOW missile in the 1970s. In 2011, the Iranians also intercepted a US-made Lockheed Martin RQ-170 “Sentinel” drone and redesigned it to create a new UAV that crossed Israeli airspace in 2018 before being shot down.

Weapons for Ukraine – what is known

As UNIAN reported earlier, the WSJ edition wrote that Russia handed over weapons to Iran , which the invaders managed to capture in battles with the Ukrainian army. In the future, Tehran plans to reconstruct the weapons and give them back to Moscow for use in the war against Ukraine.

Also, Iran and Russia agreed to build a new plant for the production of UAVs for the war in Ukraine in the city of Yelabuga (Republic of Tatarstan) .

Meanwhile, on February 24, the United States announced a new $2 billion defense aid package for Ukraine . The new assistance includes a US commitment to provide Ukraine with long-term HIMARS munitions, 155mm artillery, and additional unmanned aerial vehicles and capabilities to counter enemy drones.

(C)UNIAN 2023