By Admin 
If we take the name of the most powerful country on the world map, then America comes first, which has such power and nuclear weapons that it has the capability to destroy any country, but when Iran directly challenged this America, then it became beyond the understanding of defense experts. Iran defeated America not with any nuclear bomb or major warfare, but only through its missiles and drones. Now the whole world is eager to know from where Iran got this powerful technology despite the economic crisis and strict restrictions. You will know in the explainer…
Question 1: How did Iran compete directly with America and Israel?
answer: Iran adopted the strategy of asymmetric warfare. In this, a large number of cheap drones like Shahid-136 were attacked and ballistic missiles were fired. In the March 2026 conflict, Iran fired hundreds of missiles and thousands of drones. Iran’s strategy was to attack with 32 lakh Shahid drones, to kill which America would have to fire missiles worth millions of dollars.
Earlier in April 2024, Iran fired more than 170 drones, more than 30 cruise missiles and more than 120 ballistic missiles at Israel. Most were intercepted, but some caused damage.
Question 2: When and how did Iran get the technology of drones and missiles?
answer: To understand this story, we will have to go back about four decades, i.e. in the 1980s, when a bloody war was going on between Iran and Iraq. During that time, America and Western countries imposed strict sanctions on Iran and Iran was not able to even buy weapons for its army.
Defense analyst Akram Kharik’s book ‘In the Shadow of Shahid’ According to, ‘Then Iran’s leadership decided that it would no longer depend on other countries. Iran decided to make weapons itself, which we know today as ‘reverse engineering’. It simply means that by disassembling the weapon made by another country, understanding its technology and then making a similar better weapon by ourselves.
‘This technology of Iran got its real flight in 2011, when Iran did not kill America’s most advanced and secret ‘RQ-170 Sentinel’ spy drone while flying in the air, but with the help of its cyber experts, hacked its system and landed it on its soil. America put a lot of pressure to take back the drone, but Iran never returned the drone and completely understood its technology by ripping out its engine, camera and radar. The Shahid-136 drone is fitted with an MD-550 engine, which is a reverse engineered version of the German Limbach L550E. After this, Iran made a copy of the same drone which has today become the backbone of its drone fleet.
Question 3: What is the specialty of Shahid-136 drone?
answer: The most important role in this campaign of Iran has been played by ‘Shahid’ drone, which today the whole world looks at with fear. It is a ‘loitering munition’, which in simple language can be called a flying bomb which can hover in the sky for hours. On finding the target, it collides directly with it and explodes. Iran has made these drones so cheap and dangerous that while an American missile defense system costs crores of rupees, this Shahid drone of Iran is made for just a few lakhs of rupees.
When hundreds of Shahid drones come into the sky together, the enemy’s air defense system stops working because the missile fired at them is many times more expensive than the drone itself, due to which the economic loss of the enemy is also huge. This is the reason why even distant countries like Australia have started fearing the shadow of this Shahid drone of Iran because Iran has also given this technology to powerful countries like Russia which is using it extensively in Ukraine. Shahid-136 Drone:
- Weight: 400 kg
- Length: 3.5 meters
- Range: 2000-2500 km
- Speed: 180 km/h
- Warhead: 20-40 kg
- Guidance: Inertial Navigation and Satellite Jamming
- USP: It flies at low altitude (30 meters) at night and radar can hardly detect it. It can be made cheaply and on a large scale. By sending it in ‘swarm’ the defense is overloaded.
Question 4: Did Iran cause a big injury to America through asymmetric war?
answer: According to research by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, Iran has advanced its missile technology along with drones to such an extent that today it has ballistic missiles with a range of thousands of kilometers. Iran initially understood the technologies with the help of North Korea and other countries but later it improved them according to its needs.
Now Iranian missiles have become completely capable of reaching American military bases and Israel. Iran has adopted a way of using its power which in the language of strategy is called ‘Asymmetric Warfare’.
Hiding its intentions, Iran has equipped its supporters in the Middle East, Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Yemen’s Houthis, Iraq and Syria with these drones and missiles and now America and its allies are in danger of a sudden attack from any corner of the Middle East.
America had spent more than 11.3 billion dollars in the first 6 days to kill Iran’s missiles and drones. America wasted more than 30 billion dollars in the entire conflict. America fired missiles worth millions of dollars to kill Iran’s swarm of cheap drones. Iran’s drones used to attack by flying close to the ground at night, which became difficult for the American defense system to trace.
Today, Iran is not like any global superpower, but it has proved that if you have the right strategy, modern technology like drones and missiles, then you can defeat even the most powerful country in the world.