MOSCOW, March 27. /TASS/. If the US puts boots on the ground in Iran and tries to fight a traditional war, it will run into a drone buzzsaw, Dmitry Kuzyakin, an unmanned aircraft expert and general designer at Russia’s Center for Integrated Unmanned Solutions, told TASS.
"Israel is still relying on conventional weapons like tanks, while the US is preparing for a ground operation using armored personnel carriers, landing craft, and attack helicopters. All of this involves the direct participation of massive numbers of personnel. It seems as if the coalition has simply decided to send its troops to die against a drone bastion erected by Iran and its proxies in order to escalate the conflict, even to the point of using nuclear weapons. I find it hard to believe that the coalition command doesn’t understand the suicidal nature of using conventional weapons, and heavy equipment in particular," Kuzyakin said.
The expert emphasized that Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine has changed the nature of modern armed conflicts. "Tanks, attack helicopters, and artillery no longer fulfill the roles they were designed for just a decade ago. The world has been reshaped by our guys, our drones in the special military operation, and it will never be the same again. The rest of the world will either accept this new reality, adjust and reorganize, as we and Iran have done, or be wiped off the world’s political map," the expert added.
Kuzyakin also commented on footage of the Shiite organization Hezbollah destroying an Israeli Merkava-2 tank with an FPV attack drone. "The drone’s hesitant, jerky movements suggest that the pilot is just learning the basics of control and combat use. In just a couple of months, the hits will be similar to those we’re accustomed to seeing by our guys in the special military operation zone: precise, maneuvering, on the move, without hesitation, and irreversible. This is far from the first use of FPV strike assets outside the Ukrainian theater of operations. So far, these cases haven’t been widespread, and here’s why. Building an FPV drone and getting it into the air is no more difficult than assembling a vacuum cleaner. There are tens of thousands of step-by-step instructions online for laymen. However, widespread use is limited by the complexity of controls and a lack of battlefield experience," the expert said.
The expert emphasized that experienced pilots are the key to using combat FPV systems. "And this experience is emerging before our very eyes, developing and being honed by Iran and its allies. It will soon become widespread, and the Israeli-US coalition will have major problems. Iranian specialists are already flying drones over US military bases and throughout the Middle East region. They are using FPV drones to control the Strait of Hormuz, using them to set fire to and sink anything that hasn’t received IRGC permission to pass through. They are flying over US military airfields and will destroy unprotected equipment right on the ground," Kuzyakin said.