![[2/4] A Russian drone is seen during a Russian drone strike, which local authorities consider to be Iranian made unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) Shahed-136, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine October 17, 2022.](https://i.lranintl.com/images/rdk9umy0/production/bd63c8574710e97813d05ea526c40c6f856a9db0-1200x799.png?rect=1,0,1199,799&w=768&h=512&q=90&fit=max&auto=format)
The United States Air Force is seeking information to acquire copies of Iran’s Shahed-136 drone for study and training purposes, a report by the Pentagon-owned newspaper Stars and Stripes said.
According to federal documents, the Air Force seeks 16 replicas of the Shahed-136, with the option to procure 20 more in the future.
“This acquisition aims to leverage drones representative of the Shahed-136, which is currently used by adversarial countries and is being encountered in multiple areas of operation,” the request for information (RFI) said.
Shahed drones are slow, low-flying, and harder to detect on radar compared to fighter jets or bombers.
Stars and Stripes quoted an expert as saying that the initiative is likely intended to help US forces practice countering and eliminating such threats.
The Shahed-136 was first publicly revealed in 2021 during an Iranian military exercise. Its affordability, swarm tactics, and export success have made it a game-changer in asymmetric warfare especially the Russia-Ukraine war.
In July, the United States unveiled its own low-cost drone, the LUCAS (Low-Cost Uncrewed Combat Attack System), developed by Arizona-based SpektreWorks.
The Shahed-136 is a pusher-propelled, delta-wing drone armed with a 50-kilogram warhead, capable of flying up to 2,500 kilometers (1,500 miles) at a speed of around 185 km/h (114 mph).
Iran began exporting Shahed drones to Russia after the invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Russia has since started producing the drone domestically, modifying it for higher speed to evade air defenses and renaming it Geran (Geranium), following a Soviet-era tradition of naming weapons after flowers.
Russia frequently deploys Shahed drones alongside ballistic missile salvos to overwhelm Ukrainian air defense systems.
