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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| What does a Shaheed 136 really cost? |
| 2024-05-21 |
| [TWZ] The price for Shahed-136 drones in reportedly leaked documents far exceeds previous estimates, but is that what Russia is really paying? A hacking group claims to have stolen files from an Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) front company in Iran that provides fine details about the Shahed-136 Kamikaze drones that Russia has been using to striking Ukraine for 15 months, The recent dump of leaked documents has called into question how much Russia actually paid Iran for the drones, and while we cannot confirm the authenticity of the documents or the general accuracy of the figures they state, they do prompt an important question — what does a Shahed-136 actually cost? Media outlets like The New York Times and CNN have reported that the drones were costing Russia about $20,000 apiece. However, documents obtained through the claimed hack show vastly different figures. Information appeared online that a hacker group Prana Network has hacked the servers of Sahara Thunder, the manufacturer of Shahed drones, and posted a large amount of documents, both technical and related to their supply to Russia. As of now, the leaked documents reveal that:… The documents state that in 2022, Russia intended to produce 6,000 Iranian drones under license at its facilities within 2.5 years, according to the Ukrainian Militinaryi news outlet. The publication cites a website called Iran Cyber News. The Iranians initially asked Russia to pay $375,000 per Shahed, but that figure was eventually negotiated down to $193,000 per drone for 6,000 units or $290,000 each for 2,000 drones, the publication reported. The total value of the production contract, including the transfer of technologies, equipment, 6,000 UAVs, and software, was $1.75 billion, according to Militinaryi. However, the documents state that there was a plan for full localization of production in Russia with minimal supply of Iranian components that could be executed in 2023, with the projected cost of each Shahed-136 dropping to about $48.800 each. The all-in 'transfer' price was at $165,500 per unit, Militinaryi reported. "This gap is probably due to the mortgaged payments for linear production, additional costs, and investments in the enterprise." In other words, this would be the all-in cost of the program, including infrastructure and licenses, amortized across the production run. The more you build, the less that number would be as fixed costs are further offset. This would give a total program cost of just under $1B. Regardless, a unit cost of around $50,000 would seem quite realistic based on everything we know about the Shahed-136 and how they are made, with that price being further reduced, and substantially so, over time. Russia transferred more than two million grams of gold to Iran as part of these deals, the publication says. Once again, we do not know the final terms of the deal for certain or what it actually included. The per-unit cost figures released by the hackers do not seem out of line, the CEO of a Ukrainian drone manufacturer told The War Zone. Related: Shahed-136 05/09/2024 Ukrainian Perspective: Invasion of Ukraine: May 8, 2024 Shahed-136 05/03/2024 Ukrainian Perspective: Invasion of Ukraine: May 2, 2024 Shahed-136 04/05/2024 Ukrainian Perspective: Invasion of Ukraine: April 4, 2024 |
| Posted by:Griter+Slash1619 |