On the morning of June 21, an Iranian Shahed 136 UAV successfully infiltrated Israeli territory and struck a civilian building in the city of Beit She’an (northeast Israel, near the border with Jordan). The large amount of explosives in this type of UAV (approximately 40 kilograms) caused significant damage to the building, but there were no casualties. The Shahed 136 UAV has a body weight of 200 kilograms, an operational range of up to 2,500 kilometers, a maximum speed of 185 kilometers per hour, and can fly at an altitude of up to five kilometers. The UAV is launched from dedicated mobile launchers mounted inside containers on trucks or from fixed launchers located in underground launch shafts at sites across #Iran. Note that, unlike the suicide UAVs operated by Hezbollah against Israel, which carried up to 8 kilograms of explosives (Ababil T, Shahed 101, and Ziad 107), the Shahed 136 carries at least five times that amount. On July 30, 2021, a Shahed 136 attacked the ship “Mercer Street,” owned by a company of an Israeli businessman, while sailing in the Gulf of Oman. Many Shahed 136 UAVs were manufactured in Iran for Russia, which extensively uses them in its war against Ukraine. Russia has also established production lines for this UAV on its territory.
