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Comment by sedan_baklazhan | Hacker News Reader

Drone’s name is Geran-5. It is also made in Russia, not in Iran. Nor does Iran produce such a (or somehow similar) drone. Nor does Iran claim any rights to it.

Calling it Shahed is a very weird propaganda twist.

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I figure this is to support the faith that Russia is running out of ordnance, which holds strong since the spring of 2022, when it was first proclaimed [1]. So Russia has to use Iranian drones and missiles, Korean shells, and even some tyres off Alibaba on their vehicles [2].

1. https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1573535/russia-running-out-of-...

2. https://www.tyrepress.com/2022/03/are-tyre-issues-hampering-...

The original drone design was based on prop driven shaheed drones, which were both supplied directly by Iran as well as being manufactured (and further developed) in Russia.

Calling it a propaganda twist ignores how the thing came to be.

Ok, but Iran's now infamous Shahed drone design is also not indigenous either, but based on a German drone design from the 1980s[1] which Germany never deployed because the Cold War ended soon after, but Iran found a use for such a design.

Everyone keeps iterating on someone else's previous work. That's how it works.

[1] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drohne-Anti-Radar

First Geran drones are based on Shaheds but are not Shaheds. This is not how they are named.

The latest jet drones being discussed in this article have nothing in common with Shaheds at all.

It's like calling a ball point pen a biro. Not that weird. Or propagandic.

Iran does manufacture a lot of drones, including similar looking ones.

Just repeating. This drone is named Geran-5. It is produced in Russia. Iran doesn’t produce such a jet drone at all.

Renaming another country’s weapon is a very weird propaganda move. Why would anyone do that?

Good question, why did Russia rename the Shahed-131 to Geran-1? Those are allegedly Iranian made, and Geran-2 is allegedly a slightly modified Shahed-136. Of course, as they keep modifying them they slowly become their own thing, but there's a clear tech ancestry.

Russia renamed it because it chose to. This is a general rule: if you produce something, you name it.

For example, the Storm Shadow missile in the UK is essentially the same as Scalp missile in France. Yet whoever produces chooses a name.

Renaming a Russian made drone is WEIRD. You can only name the weapons you make.

It is not weird to call something by the name of something that is much more widely known, that it is closely related to. It is maybe a little bit weird to get really angry online about that, unless you are upset about the association being reinforced.

I am not saying this drones is Iran made (it is most likely built by gang pressed teenagers in Alabuga like other Geran drones) just that Iran has a bunch of drone designs, including jet powered ones:

https://www.oryxspioenkop.com/2019/09/the-oryx-handbook-of-i...

Also would not be surprised if there was knowledge sharing either previously when their let them clone the main Shahed variant or even to this day.

"Drone" is an overloaded term. I'm not sure what someone means when they say "drone" (an FPV drone? an MQ-9?) When someone mentions "Shahed" I immediately know what's being talked about. It disambiguates what's being discussed.

Many also describe the US-made LUCAS drone as a Shahed clone, which clear up what role this system fills.

What is the resemblance between Geran-5 (a jet drone, essentially a rocket) and Shahed/Lucas drones after all?

It's role is far closer to that of Shahed/LUCAS drones than that of FPV drones or MQ-9s.

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