Iran Unveils Mysterious Loitering Munition Resembling Russia’s Lancet. But That Doesn’t

Iranian media revealed the development of a new loitering munition—colloquially known as “suicide” or “kamikaze” drones—over the weekend, noting its mild resemblance to Russia’s Lancet drone, which has seen combat in Syria and Ukraine since entering service in 2020.

The existence of the drone, which has no known official name yet, was revealed in a report on Iran’s Tasnim News Agency over the weekend. Tasnim is affiliated with Iran’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps paramilitary, which developed the drone.

The report concluded, “Assuming that the new loitering munition manufactured by the IRGC is inspired by the Russian-made Lancet, the drone must have a flight endurance of 30 to 60 minutes and carry a payload of 3 to 6 kilograms within a range of 40 kilometers.”

The use of the word “inspired” is noteworthy. The drone certainly isn’t identical to the Lancet but seems to share a similar basic design and, as Tasnim notes, most likely has a comparable range and payload.

In combat in Ukraine, Lancets have been credited with destroying several high-value targets—ranging from Western-supplied Leopard tanks and howitzers to Soviet-era air defenses and fighter jets—miles behind the frontlines, leading Ukraine to acknowledge how dangerous and difficult they are to counter.

While this record is undoubtedly impressive, there is no indication it has generated Iran’s interest in acquiring the Lancet. To date, Tehran has exclusively exported drones to Russia without importing any Russian ones. Even before Russia and Iran’s unprecedented technical and defense cooperation forged since the latter invaded Ukraine in 2022, it was Moscow, as early as August 2019, that showed interest in Tehran’s drones, not the other way around.

Since 2022, Iran has delivered thousands of Shahed 131 and Shahed 136 loitering munitions to Russia. It also authorized Russia to locally assemble variants of these drones at the Yelabuga drone factory in the Republic of Tatarstan’s Alabuga Special Economic Zone, 560 miles east of Moscow. Moscow paid for many of these drones with gold bullion and also reportedly sent captured portable American Javelin anti-tank and Stinger anti-air missiles to Iran, which Tehran will most likely seize the opportunity to reverse-engineer.

There is no indication Russia provided any of its Lancet drones or even the designs for Iran to build locally as part of any of these transactions, although it’s not wholly inconceivable.

“Almost nothing is known about this new drone, and notwithstanding its resemblance to Lancet, I don’t think it is a licensed copy of Lancet or based on Russian tech,” Farzin Nadimi, a defense and security analyst and Senior Fellow of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, told me.

“I am not aware of any Russian drone design beyond the Lancet that Iran might be interested in fielding or copying,” he said.

“It’s worth remembering Iran’s Shahed-131/-136 themselves were based on other earlier designs such as the Israeli Harpy/Harop, Chinese ASN-301, and Taiwanese Chien Hsiang.”

Nadimi also pointed out that Hezbollah has heavily modified its Ababil-2 and Mirsad drones to a “similar configuration” and used them against targets in Israel’s Acre back in February.

Furthermore, a user on X noted that the unnamed Iranian drone more closely resembles an Israeli Hero-400 than the Russian Lancet, suggesting Iran may have reverse-engineered the drone from a captured Israeli example.

“It can be speculated that the new Iranian drone is actually based on a Hero-400 example, which might have recovered either in Lebanon/Syria or from one of the at least six Iranian ships that were reportedly damaged by Israeli loitering munitions between 2019 and 2021,” Nadimi said.

Iran indeed has a long history of reverse-engineering foreign weapons systems, including drones. Most notably, Iran reverse-engineered a Lockheed Martin RQ-170 Sentinel brought down in Iran after straying into Iranian airspace from neighboring Afghanistan in 2011. Based on the captured Sentinel, Iran developed the Shahed 171 Simorgh and smaller Saegheh drones. Israel intercepted one of these drones in 2018 and confirmed it was a “copy” of the Sentinel.

Iran also has a history of developing unique weaponry domestically, such as the loitering missile designated 358 by the United States that loiters around a designated area until it finds enemy drones, helicopters, or other low-flying aircraft to intercept.

Incidentally, other countries have built drones that strongly resemble Iran’s Shahed-series which are not known to have acquired any from Tehran.

For example, China recently unveiled the Sunflower 200 drone that bears a striking resemblance to the Shahed-131, as does Turkey’s Azab drone unveiled last year. Both of these drones were unveiled after Russia began using Shaheds against Ukraine in 2022, and both have similar ranges.

The IRGC may have observed the Lancet’s design and performance and tasked its engineers with building an Iranian drone with comparable capabilities, much like China and Turkey appear to have done with the Shahed.

UPDATE April 29: Added context and additional quote noting the unnamed Iranian drone more strongly resembles the Israeli Hero-400 than the Russian Lancet that Iranian media reports have compared it with.