International | Drone v drone Can Ukraine help defeat Iran’s drone swarms? Thousands of Shaheds are raining down on the Gulf Share Photograph: Getty Images Mar 6th 2026 | 7 min read I n 2014 iran displayed a new drone, the Touphan, or Typhoon, a small, lightweight aircraft with delta wings. Like Chekov’s gun, introduced in the first act, it stood in the background—until 2019, when it, or something like it, crashed into two Saudi Arabian oil refineries.

Those suicide drones, or one-way attack ( owa ) munitions in military jargon, were the nucleus of what, a few years later, became the Shahed.

After its invasion of Ukraine in 2022 Russia bought and improved them (as the Geran-2).

It has since churned out tens of thousands to hurl at Ukraine.

Now they are returning to the Middle East, en masse, causing a headache for America and its allies.

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