Iranian engineers working around the clock to reverse engineer Javelin
Iranian engineers working around the clock to reverse engineer Javelin
Russia has Iranian engineers (along with Russian colleagues) working to reverse engineer US made Javelins and other anti-tank weapons that have been captured on the Ukrainian frontlines.
In advance of Ukraine’s counter offensive, the US and other Western partners are increasing a supply of tanks to Ukraine. To counter them, Russia has Iranian engineers (along with Russian colleagues) working around the clock to reverse engineer US made Javelins and other anti-tank weapons that have been captured on the Ukrainian frontlines. These weapons were retrieved by the Russian military and, in hopes of duplicating them, then delivered to Iran’s military research center.
At the end of January, the US announced it was sending 31 M1A2 Abrams tanks to Ukraine. Other allies also committed support; Germany will send Leopard 2 tanks and a Patriot missile battery, United Kingdom will send Challenger 2 tanks, and France will provide AMX-10 armored fighting vehicles. The whole Western world is counting on these provisions to be a game changer, in hopes these weapons will allow Ukraine to retake territory currently occupied by Russia. One high-level officer in Ukraine’s Main Directorate of Intelligence explained why the West is so optimistic: “So far there is no Russian made, anti-tank weapon that can effectively destroy those tanks.”
But Russians and Iranians also know that and are working hard to acquire such a weapon. The fastest and most effective way to do so is to reverse engineer US made anti-tank weapons like the Javelin, which has already proved very effective last year against Russian tanks on Ukraine frontlines.
But during the yearlong fighting in Ukraine, Russia has captured a significant number of western anti-tank weapons, a fact they have even highlighted in their propaganda. Those weapons were then shipped, either by air, via Syria and then by land; or directly by sea from Russia to Iran. Military engineers are now working around the clock to replicate these weapons quickly. They are in a race—they need to develop an anti-tank weapon before Western military aid is actively used on the frontline. According to intelligence sources, Iran’s top engineers, assisted by their Russian colleagues, are developing prototypes in a research center in Isfahan.
On 9th of April Russian propaganda already announce preparation of special units called “Tank hunters” whose task would be destroying Western made tanks such as Abrams and Leopard 2. But what weapons they would use to do so was not yet specified.
If Iranian and Russian engineers successfully build a copy of the Javelin anti-tank weapon, they would most likely produce them in Iran and deliver them to Russia via the same route Russia first delivered the original weapons, illegally by land through Iraq, to the airport in Syria, and then to Russia by air. Using this route, it would take around 10 days to move the weapons from a factory in Iran to Russian frontline positions, according to Iraqi intelligence sources.
Reverse engineering US weapons is an old Iranian practice. For example, Russia has actively used Shahid 171 drones in the Russia-Ukraine war. The Shahid 171 is a copy of the RQ-170 Sentinel, captured by Iran in 2011. And in 2019 Iran reverse engineered US RQ-4 Global Hawk shot down in strait of Hormuz. Iran is known for aggressively collecting every Western weapon they could get from Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan with the goal of reverse engineering them.
Ukraine’s counteroffensive has already been announced, and Russia is running low on weapons and ammunition. If they are to maintain their absorbed territory, Russia has to come up with something soon. Right now, in addition to having all of their military factories working in three shifts, Russian officials and Wagner group leadership are again asking their partners for whatever weapons they can spare. Russia is also considering the mass production of cheap and simple explosives made out of ammonium nitrate, in its fertilizer factories.
So far Iran is helping Russia with drones and explosives, but if they are able to reverse engineer and produce Western made anti-aircraft weapons, it could cause a major problem.