Downed Iranian drone captured in Ukraine displayed in US
A disassembled Iranian-designed Shahed 136 military drone seized in Ukraine arrived at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland this week and was displayed as part of a political conference addressing the ongoing threat of Iran.
The drone, brought down by Ukrainian forces, was transported with cooperation from Ukrainian and Polish special forces and United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), a US-based nonprofit, Wall Street Journal reported.
“The Iranians have tried to conceal the role of this terror WMD weapon for years,” said UANI’s head Mark Wallace, who served as a US ambassador at the United Nations.
Wallace and Thomas Kaplan, a funder of UANI, were the ones who persuaded Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski at a meeting in Warsaw to procure an Iranian drone for Wallace to import into the United States.
The drone was displayed at the Conservative Political Action Conference this weekend and Donald Trump, the President of the United States, spoke at the conference.
According to the report, the Shahed-136 drone is considered the most widely used military drone in the world and is manufactured in Iran's military industries under the supervision of the IRGC. The IRGC is designated as a terrorist organization in the United States.
Russian forces have used thousands of these drones—rebranded as Geran-2—in Ukraine, with one striking Chernobyl’s radiation containment shelter on February 14.
Iranian-backed militants also launched a Shahed that killed three US service members in Jordan on January 28.
Former US intelligence official Norman Roule describes Iran as a “serial arsonist that openly nurtures other arsonists who operate in regional countries.” and supports proxies like Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis.
“Russia also serves as a proxy because it’s extending Iran’s power projection and allows Iran to perform on the world stage,” he said.
The United States first warned in July 2022 that Iran was preparing to supply Russia with battlefield drones, and September 13 marked the anniversary of the first Shahed drone being shot down by Ukraine.
Russia soon began large scale use of the Iranian drones in attacks on Ukraine’s infrastructure and civilian targets. The Shahed 136 drones have been used alongside cruise and ballistic missile attacks to overwhelm Ukrainian air defenses.
