Drone team: Russia’s plan to arm Iran

In early 2025, a confidential 10-page document prepared by Russia’s GRU military intelligence service proposed providing Iran with 5,000 short-range fiber optic drones, an unknown number of longer-range satellite-guided drones, and training to use both—all aimed at repelling a potential American amphibious invasion of Iran. The Economist obtained the document from a trusted source and reported on its contents exclusively. The proposal, if implemented, would have represented a significant escalation in Russian-Iranian military cooperation, one directly intended to kill American forces.

Fiber optic drones: unjammable and precise

The centerpiece of the proposed transfer is the fiber optic drone, a weapon that has proven devastating in Ukraine. Unlike most drones, which rely on radio or satellite signals for control and are therefore vulnerable to jamming, fiber optic drones are tethered to their operator by a long cable—up to 40 kilometers—along which data flows. This makes them essentially unjammable. As defense editor Shashank Joshi explained, the most skilled Ukrainian operators can “weave these things even through a dense forest to get to the other side.” The concept of a wire-guided munition is not new—Egypt used Soviet-made wire-guided anti-tank missiles against Israel in the 1973 Yom Kippur War—but the fiber optic element is. Both Russia and Ukraine have scrambled t