More than 80 of the drones were destroyed by U.S. and European military forces before they reached Israeli airspace on Saturday, according to a statement by U.S. Central Command, which oversees U.S. operations in the Middle East.
At 11 feet long and 440 pounds, the Shahed-136 uses a lightweight frame — with the same honeycomb carbon structure as high-speed trains in China — to carry over 100 pounds of explosives toward preprogrammed targets up to 1,500 miles away.
In the growing field of drone warfare, the “size, range, warhead weight and engine” set the Shahed-136 apart, according to Fabian Hinz, an Iran analyst at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in Berlin.
“The Shahed-131 was first observed in 2014 at an exhibition in Iran,” he said. “Then Iran’s military wing, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, improved on that design and scaled it up to build the 136.”
These self-detonating drones carry out one-way attacks, delivering small payloads of explosives. Analysts say they are relatively accurate, long-ranged and inexpensive compared to missiles used to shoot them down.
Length: 11 feet
Max. speed:
115 mph
Approx. weight: 440 pounds
Range: About 1,100 – 1,500 miles
Its nose contains a warhead and can be equipped with a camera.
Sources: Defense Express, AeroVironment
WILLIAM NEFF/THE WASHINGTON POST
These self-detonating drones carry out one-way attacks, delivering small payloads of explosives. Analysts say they are relatively accurate, long-ranged and inexpensive compared to missiles used to shoot them down.
Length: 11 feet
Max. speed: 115 mph
Approx. weight: 440 pounds
Range: About 1,100 – 1,500 miles
Its nose contains a warhead and can be equipped with a camera.
Sources: Defense Express, AeroVironment
WILLIAM NEFF/THE WASHINGTON POST
The drone employs a satellite guidance system that “you’d expect to be accurate up to roughly five meters [16 feet],” according to Jeremy Binnie, a Middle East analyst for Janes Defense Intelligence. The guidance mechanism, coupled with spoofing-resistant antennae, allows the drone to maintain an accurate flight path far beyond the range of drones controlled using radio signals.
“The Shahed-136’s warhead is said to weigh 50 kg [110 pounds], which doesn’t seem much when you compare it to the smallest standard bomb on a military aircraft, which weighs 500 pounds,” Binnie said. However, “if you can hit the target accurately, you don’t necessarily need a large warhead.”
Pairing relatively lightweight explosives with a commercial satellite guidance system has allowed Iran to produce Shahed-136 drones at an unparalleled low cost.
“They are quite slow and quite noisy, but they are cheap,” Binnie said, estimating that one Shahed-136 drone costs $50,000 to produce. A cruise missile with a similar range typically costs more than $1 million. “If you can get your opponent to use a surface-to-air missile that costs $1 million to shoot down a drone that costs you $50,000, then it’s a good exchange.”
Firing a barrage of Shahed drones could indicate that Iran was more intent on sending Israel a message than hitting specific military or civilian targets. Compared with other precision missiles, the Shahed-136 drone is often less deadly, as the distinctive buzzing sound gives people time to seek shelter before an explosion and the blast radius is smaller than that of the Shahed’s precision counterparts.
“The Shahed is a slow and low-flying drone: Iran knew that drone would be downed,” said Samuel Bendett, a member of the Russia studies program at the Center for Naval Analyses in Virginia. “It’s a cheap way to let your adversary know that defending against the Shahed will be stressful and expensive.”
Iran’s fleet of drones is ideal for the type of strikes it carried out over the weekend, working in concert with larger munitions in coordinated aerial attacks.
“When the Shahed-136 first appeared, people called them a poor man’s cruise missile because it’s cheaper and simpler. But if it’s cheaper and simpler, you can also build many more of them,” Hinz said. “It’s a question of concepts and priorities: The Shahed is not only being used on a tactical level — they are being used alongside more strategic, long-range weapons.”
Iranian officials agreed to transfer designs and key components of the drone to Russia in November 2022, allowing Russian forces to pair the Shahed-136 with larger tactile missiles to overwhelm Ukrainian defense forces and target civilian infrastructure. Western officials have since revealed Moscow’s plans to manufacture 6,000 drone units that are variants of the Iranian Shahed-136 by 2025, improving upon Iran’s prototype.
Russian and Iranian defense collaboration has continued to develop.
As recently as March 29, Russian military forces launched more than 90 drones and missiles at Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. The high volume of drones “puts stress on Ukrainian defenders to expend their resources,” said Bendett, even though Ukrainian forces have learned to eliminate drones with truck-mounted machine guns. “Ukraine has gotten the cost of defending against Shaheds down to a manageable amount, but every attack still costs a lot.”
Iran’s decision to deploy over 100 Shahed-136 drones alongside a smaller number of ballistic missiles may reflect a similar calculus.
“It is likely at this point that the Iranians are learning from Russia’s experience in Ukraine,” said Bendett. “And the Russians probably learned a lot from Israel’s response, as well.”
