{"id":2813,"date":"2026-03-04T11:21:27","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T11:21:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/2813\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T11:21:27","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T11:21:27","slug":"iranian-drones-buzz-across-the-persian-gulf-after-their-pivotal-use-by-russia-in-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/2813\/","title":{"rendered":"Iranian drones buzz across the Persian Gulf after their pivotal use by Russia in Ukraine"},"content":{"rendered":"

The distinctive buzz of Iranian-designed drones has become a familiar sound in Ukraine over the past four years. Now, it\u2019s increasingly heard across the Persian Gulf as Tehran strikes back with the cheap but effective weapons following the attack by the U.S. and Israel<\/a> against Iran.<\/p>\n

The Shahed drones<\/a> have made a transformative impact on modern warfare, with Russia sending swarms of the deadly weapons into the skies above Ukraine on nightly missions.<\/p>\n

While ballistic and cruise missiles fly much faster and pack a bigger punch, they cost millions and are available only in limited quantities. A Shahed drone costs only tens of thousands of dollars \u2014 a tiny fraction of a ballistic missile.<\/p>\n

Available in big numbers, the drones have shown their capability to oversaturate air defenses and inflict painful damage at a very low cost.<\/p>\n

The debut in Ukraine<\/p>\n

After Russia\u2019s botched attempt to capture the Ukrainian capital after its full-scale invasion<\/a> with tanks, troops and missiles in February 2022, the fighting has turned into a war of attrition that has been increasingly shaped by drones.<\/p>\n

While swarms of small drones have played a decisive role on the battlefield, both Russia and Ukraine also have increasingly relied on longer-range drones to attack deep into each other\u2019s territory.<\/p>\n

After reaching a deal with Tehran to import Shahed drones early in the war \u2014 Shahed means \u201cwitness\u201d in Farsi \u2014 Russia localized their production. Russian engineers have increased its altitude, made it more jamming-resistant and fitted it with more powerful warheads.<\/p>\n

The Russian replica of the Shahed \u2014 called \u201cGeran,\u201d or \u201cgeranium\u201d \u2014 has been put in production at a plant in the Russian province of Tatarstan<\/a> that has exponentially increased output. Since then, Russia has battered Ukraine with hundreds of drones in a single night \u2013 more than were used during some entire months in 2024.<\/p>\n

By using large numbers in a single attack, Moscow\u2019s strategists seek to overwhelm Ukrainian air defenses and distract them from engaging more expensive cruise and ballistic missiles that Moscow often uses alongside the drones to hit high-value targets.<\/p>\n

And while it flies slow at 180 kph (just over 110 mph), it can range as far as 2,000 kilometers (1,240 miles) and carry a relatively big load of 40 kilograms (88 pounds) of explosives. Ukrainians have dubbed them \u201cmopeds\u201d for their distinctive buzz.<\/p>\n

Ukraine has relied on mobile teams armed with machine guns as a low-cost response to the drones to spare using more-expensive Western-supplied air defense missiles. It also has developed interceptor drones and is working to scale up production, but the steady rise in Russian attacks has strained its defenses.<\/p>\n

Attacks in the Gulf and beyond<\/p>\n

Following the weekend U.S. and Israeli attacks, Iran has struck Israel and also unleashed a barrage of hundreds of missiles and drones on multiple targets in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.<\/p>\n

They included U.S. bases, ports, airports, oil facilities and oil tankers, as well as some high-rise buildings.<\/p>\n

Officials in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates said Sunday that air defenses had dealt with 165 ballistic missiles, two cruise missiles and more than 540 Iranian drones over two days. While officials said they intercepted all air attacks Saturday, debris from the knocked-down weapons sparked blazes at some of Dubai\u2019s most iconic locations.<\/p>\n

Some Iranian drones flew as far as a U.K. military base in Cyprus. The runway at the Royal Air Force base in Akrotiri was struck by an Iranian drone Sunday, according to U.K. officials, and sirens blared there again Monday when two more drones heading toward the base were intercepted.<\/p>\n

State-of-the-art U.S. and Israeli air defense assets have proven efficient in intercepting most of Iran\u2019s ballistic missiles launched at Israel. But the attacks using large numbers of cheap drones hit some softer targets lacking the same level of protection.<\/p>\n

Patrick Bury, a professor of security issues at the University of Bath, said drones have transformed warfare, thanks to the combination of \u201cthe persistent surveillance and the high-precision strike\u201d coupled with improved targeting systems and artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n

He noted the Shahed drones can be easily hidden in the back of a truck.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s taken people by surprise \u2026 is the ferocity and the scale with which Iran has retaliated this time,\u201d compared with its response to the June 2025 U.S. and Israeli attacks, Bury told The Associated Press. \u201cWhat the U.S. and the Israelis are hoping, I think, and calculating, that they can degrade that enough to basically then take some of the steam out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many observers noted the U.S. and its allies could tap the experience that Ukraine gained in dealing with Russian drone attacks.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur military must do more ASAP to institutionalize defensive lessons from Ukraine,\u201d said Dara Massicot, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment, posting on X.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Jill Lawless in London contributed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The distinctive buzz of Iranian-designed drones has become a familiar sound in Ukraine over the past four years.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2814,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[26],"tags":[719,2203,1402,687,1567,197,34,61,196,37,2205,768,1401,2202,39,53,56,2204,200,82],"class_list":["post-2813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-persian-gulf","tag-2024-2025-mideast-wars","tag-dara-massicot","tag-drone-surveillance-and-warfare","tag-drones","tag-dubai","tag-general-news","tag-iran","tag-iran-government","tag-iran-war","tag-israel","tag-jill-lawless","tag-military-and-defense","tag-military-technology","tag-patrick-bury","tag-persian-gulf","tag-russia-ukraine-war","tag-ukraine","tag-ukraine-government","tag-war-and-unrest","tag-world-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116170646198695364","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2813","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2813"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2813\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}