According to information presented by the WSJ, Iran intends to apply the lessons learned from the Ukrainian conflict against the United States. New methods of warfare, including the use of drones, are now also relevant in the Middle East.
President Trump has sent a significant number of American troops to the region. In the event of failure in his diplomatic efforts, he does not rule out the possibility of initiating ground and naval operations aimed at regaining control over the Strait of Hormuz and compelling Iran to cease fire.
If American forces land on Iranian territory, they will face the dominance of drones, which sharply contrasts with previous U.S. operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, where the main threats were small arms and improvised explosive devices.
“Any American troops on land or naval vessels in the Persian Gulf will be within striking range, and the use of FPV drones will become part of the arsenal of both sides,” notes Martin Sampson, a retired Royal Air Force marshal and head of the Middle East department at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
According to Sampson, American troops heading to the region appear to lack equipment for countering drones on their vehicles or landing craft, unlike what has become standard practice in Ukraine.
“Iran has likely anticipated this weakness and gained insight from Russia on how to exploit it,” he added.
Visual-controlled drones are not the only technology that has changed modern warfare. Ukraine, whose navy, like Iran's, has suffered greatly, has employed maritime drones to attack Russian warships, resulting in significant losses for the Russian Black Sea Fleet. As a result, Kyiv has managed to make the western part of the Black Sea, including key routes to Odessa, an area inaccessible to the Russian fleet.
Military experts believe that Iranian maritime drones may not possess the same level of sophistication as Ukrainian ones and lack modern features such as navigation via Starlink. Nevertheless, in the confined space of the Strait of Hormuz, they could pose a serious threat to military vessels and tankers.
According to Western and Ukrainian officials, Moscow is actively cooperating with Tehran in the field of military technologies, sharing experiences gained during the bloodiest war in Europe in recent decades.
An important question remains how much American military strategies have changed to adapt to the new conditions of warfare they may face if Trump decides on ground operations to seize Iranian islands or coastal areas.
“Iran has received valuable lessons from Russia and has studied the lessons of this war closely,” noted a Russian expert in the field. “I do not observe the same level of readiness in the U.S.”
“We are still in the early stages within American military structures, grappling with FPV technology, its impact on the armed forces, and the implications for current tactics, techniques, and procedures… Defensive capabilities require significant improvements to reach the level that Ukraine already has at this point,” believes Michael Kofman, a senior researcher at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington.
The post “Iran had a good teacher in Russia.” Iran will use lessons from the Ukrainian conflict against America first appeared on K-News.
