1、IRANIAN DRONEPROLIFERATION IS SCALING UPAND TURNING MORE LETHALNAKISSA JAHANBANI,MUHAMMAD NAJJAR,BENJAMIN JOHNSON,CALEB BENJAMIN,AND MUHAMMADAL-UBAYDISEPTEMBER 8,2023COMMENTARYOn Sept.6,a three-hour Russian drone attack on Odessa damaged agricultural and port infrastructure,killing onecivilian.Of th
2、e 33 air weapons that Russia launched,25 were Iranian-made Shahed drones.This attack occurs in abroader context of Iranian-Russian drone collaboration,amid recent reports of Russia building thousands of droneswith Iranian assistance.The attack also demonstrates a now undeniable fact:Drones are incre
3、asingly part ofthe gray-zone conflict between Iran and the United States.This conflict has now also expanded beyond the Middle East,where the two countries have long existed in a state somewhere between war and peace,to theaters further afield,including Ukraine.Iranian drone usage is following a concerning trajectory:The more these drones proliferate,the more lethal andsophisticated they become.Iran tested and refined its drone systems with sales to its proxy network before delivering