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According to a post appeared on Twitter / X, the Iranian’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Aerospace Force (IRGC ASF) applied kill marks on Shahed-136 Drones of the US assets destroyed during the ongoing war with Washington.
As it can be seen in these photos the drones sport several kill markings featuring among them that of the E-3 Sentry airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) aircraft destroyed during the recent Iranian missile and drone attack on Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia.
Also, a writing placed on one side of one of the drones says:
“What is Next?”
As already reported, along with the desroyed E-3G, on Mar. 27 2026 multiple United States service members were wounded and multiple KC-135 Stratotankers damaged during the Iranian missile and drone attack on Prince Sultan Air Base.
Command coordination and ability to maintain continuous air presence over operational areas can be affected by damaging these platforms: in fact sortie generation and mission planning can be affected by even a limited disruption to refueling or airborne command assets.
The other US assets damaged or destroyed by IRGC ASF appearing as kill marks on Shahed-136 Drones are: the AN/MPQ-65 (PAC-3) which replaced the Patriot MIM-104 defense systems’ MPQ-53 radar under the PAC-3 program. The AN/TPY-2 is a missile defense radar that can detect, track and discriminate ballistic missiles. In Forward-based mode, the radar detects ballistic missiles after they are launched. FPS-132 Early Warning Radar provides early detection and precise tracking of incoming ballistic missiles, as well as quick, accurate determination of threat versus non-threat objects.
Kamikaze Shahed-131 and Shahed-136 are one-way-attack (OWA) unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), are designed to destroy ground fixed objects by pointing and contact explosion of warheads and UAVs. As noted by Open Source Munitions Portal, they are essentially guided missiles — flying towards pre-designated targets and exploding on impact. These UAVs are Iranian designed ant they were first used in the Middle East by Iranian and Iranian-backed forces.
Shahed-131 and Shahed-136 were designed ‘Geran-1’ and ‘Geran-2’ by Russians after they started to receive them following the invasion of Ukraine in 2022. After that, Moscow started domestic mass production of these UAVs with Iranian assistance. Shahed are cheaper than most other long-range, OWA UAVs given that they have an estimated cost between $20,000 and $50,000. They are dubbed “the poor man’s cruise missile” because of their low cost, low-altitude flight profile and self-sacrificial nature.
Dario Leone: All articles
