UAV (drone) related information
When discussing ways to arm the Iranian people, some of the participants here raise impossible scenarios. My military knowledge in the field is about 15 years old and irrelevant for specifics, but still fundamentally applies to UAV operation. Let's break drones to 2 groups: Those that require a landing strip and a control station, and those operated on the field at the operator's discretion. The Iranian public will not get anything from the first group (no American Reaper, no Israeli Hermes, etc) because their proper operation requires long training, experience, and field conditions we just don't have, at least at scale. This scenario is impossible at grand scale, and pursuing it would be the wrong use of resources. The second group requires very little training and can be effective by novices. That's the Ukrainian drone approach. There are Israeli drones that fit that role but they're mostly for intel. Armies usually have a third group. The loitering munition group. That's the second group, but still operated by professionals. My info is 15 years old. There's a lot I'm missing. But to the best of my knowledge, the Ukrainians are the only ones that came up with a solution that fits the Iranian revolutionists specific needs (taking out machine gunners in the field). Even if the US and Israel have an alternative, it is for sure not as field tested, not as simple to operate, and not as cheap to spend as the Ukrainian alternative.