Russia is preparing to transfer all 24 Su-35 fighters to Iran
Their value was 2 billion dollars
The cost of 24 Russian Su-35 fighter jets does not abnormally correlate with the multiplied export price of Iranian Shahed-136 kamikaze drones.
Russian Su-35 fighters, which are a deep modernization of the Soviet Su-27, will be transferred to Iran in the near future. We are talking about all 24 machines that became the subject of an agreement on the part of Moscow in exchange for which, at a minimum, Tehran sends up to 1,700 kamikaze drones Shahed-131 and Shahed-136 (of which 540 have already been used by the Russian Federation).
Information about this with reference to ‘Western intelligence’ was published by the Israeli mass media, in particular the Times of Israel. And in this situation, it is extremely interesting that we are talking about all 24 Su-35s, which were created to fulfill the contract with Egypt from 2018 for 2 billion dollars. But this agreement was canceled due to sanctions in 2021.
At the same time, the cost of 1,700 kamikaze drones, the cost of which is estimated at $7,000 by the GUR of the MoU, actually amounts to only $11.9 million for Iran. And this is many times less than even one Su-35, which under the Egyptian contract cost 83.3 million dollars. To achieve cost parity, one kamikaze drone would have to cost $11.76 million each, which is impossible, even taking into account Tehran’s monopoly on arms trade with the Russian Federation.
Such a disproportion is possible only in a few cases. The subject of the agreement under which the Su-35 is transferred is not only kamikaze drones, but also other weapons, including ballistic missiles. And the appearance of information about Russia’s readiness to transfer the aircraft is a factor in the fact that the agreement was reached after all.
Another option is that kamikaze drones are a ‘bonus’ and Tehran traditionally paid for them with money. But at no time during the mention of this Russian-Tehran agreement was there a question of monetary or any other equivalent of settlement, only of ‘arms for arms’ barter.
Finally, it is quite possible that for the Kremlin, exchanging fighter jets for something was the only possible option to sell the products. Although in this situation, a decision could be made to strengthen the ‘Egyptian’ planes of their own ‘VKS’.
