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Ukraine should offer more money than Russia to buy said Drones. Game of Thrones this shit.
Russia makes the bet that Iran can produce drones faster than NATO can produce anti-air missiles. >

Honestly I think they’ll be able to do it cheaper with high volume computer assisted machine gun fire or computer guided anti drone electronic warfare weapons. 
Missiles are expensive but a tracked weapon that either doesn’t need reloading or costs a fraction of a missile is coming. >

cheapest is to kill the source, just need some long range, accurate missiles >

And most effective - I’d go for this option >

Just here to casually remind people that this naval anti-missile system called ‘goalkeeper’ exists.
And while it’d be very expensive to buy even just a few to use in major population centres, Ukraine effectively has a blank cheque from the entire planet to make sure that Russia stays behind its borders. 
But rockets are probably a better option in general. It means militaries who support Ukraine can use this opportunity to donate their ageing stock and replenish with brand-new munitions. >

Yeah Ukraine is basically becoming NATO's dumping ground for their outdated equipment so they can get new state-of-the-art tech themselves.
It's convenient that NATO's outdated equipment is still better than Russia's current equipment though. >

Just look at NATO stuff like the German Gepard. It was constantly modernized in regard of electronics but got pretty much phased out because NATO AA doctrine switched to missile systems against high value threats like modern era helicopters or jets with some auto cannon functionality on ifvs against Helis.  
Turns out, dedicated radar AA vehicles with auto cannons that have airburst capability are the perfect answer to drones. 
The basic idea of drones is twofold. First they are relatively cheap and stupid, second their price would allow them to overwhelm most missile systems that are more designed to deal with individual high threat weapon carriers or high yield missiles rather than a swarm of low yield targets. 
These auto cannon as systems are turning the cost efficiency back in favor of the defender. 
I bet developers like Rheinmetall with their mantis are salviating at the prospect of this turning longterm with NATO basically building a new iron dome. >

They're easy to counter if you have the systems in place to counter them, but they're so plentiful and cheap to produce that you're going to find a lot of places where they can still be used effectively. 
I'm also really interested to see about naval drones. Ukraine developed naval drones by rigging civilian jet skis with explosives and a piloting system but it was only like 10 boats or something. A proper naval drone swarm similar with higher yield explosives and hundreds of boats could be a serious threat to larger battleships. Imagine that in combination with a proper air strike. >

Anything involving more jet skis is automatically cooler. >

This puts the Miami vice theme in my head for some reason. >

Can the drones be targeted while in transit? Is that too logistically complicated to pull off at the moment? Would the result of that draw another country into the war? >

The Iranian drones are easy enough to shoot out of the sky with the right defences. Ukraine blasted them all last night. What Russia is banking on is that the missile to destroy it costs more than the drone.
It’s a pretty stupid plan, to be honest. >

I think what he meant by transit, and it's also what's on my mind is how are they getting from Iran to Russia?
Is it a ship or plane that can be ambushed before Russia takes possession? Would it cause Iran to officially enter the war? >

Russia and Iran have plane routes. Not to mention Russia is working on establishing a trade route with Iran through the Caspian Sea which directly links the two and bypasses sanctions. >

Step 1: NATO-funded pirates
Step 2: ???
Step 3: Memes? >

Aren't they called something else when they are hired to harass the other side in a war?
Edit: Yep, they wouldn't be pirates anymore, they would be Privateers. >

It's not a war. It's a special maritime operation. >

A special arghperation... >

How long before someone smokes too close to the drone factory? >

Israel is already handing out Marlboros. >

Boom !!! >

The takeaway:  Russia's supposedly formidable army has been reduced to cheap drones. >

That they import >

From Iran. >

Those drones seem to be doing what they were intended to do, I would not underestimate them just because they come from Iran.