Recently, online comparisons have massively begun between iranian Shahed-136 costs and means of engaging them, amid Ukraine's proposal to export cheap interceptor drones. Moreover, the idea is actively spreading that Patriots and THAADs are being used against Shaheds, which is evidently not the case.
In such comparisons, Shahed-136 cost constantly fluctuates, ranging from $20-30,000 to $50,000. But what is the actual price for these drones? Even $50,000 sounds very cheap for Shahed-136, since for example Ukrainian FP-1s, which maximize cost reduction reflected literally in everything, cost $55,000.
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At the same time, Shahed-136 is somewhat more technically complex as well as more difficult to manufacture. Accordingly, its cost cannot be less than FP-1. So what would be an honest cost for iranian drones?
It is worth recalling that in 2022, russians purchased Shahed-136 assembly kits at prices over $370,000. With orders for 2,000 units, the price decreased to $290,000, and for 6,000 unit orders it dropped to $193,000.
Subsequently, production for russians was almost completely localized in russia itself, where design and manufacturing technology were significantly simplified. Unit cost in 2025 dropped to approximately $70,000 (depending on configuration, price may vary).
In other words, in 2022, the cost of iranian-manufactured Shahed-136 assembly kits was around $200,000 per unit for export. russians managed to reduce their price to approximately $70,000 through design simplification and production volume increases.
In turn, although iran produces quite many Shahed-136s, it has unlikely to have caught up to russia in production scale. Therefore, Shahed-136 cost for iran could likely be higher than $70,000, but definitely not less. It should be noted that photographs of Shahed-136 debris from russian production have already appeared online, which iran allegedly employed.
There is a possibility that iran could have ordered its own Shahed-136s, but in russian-licensed production, due to lower cost and greater mass availability. However, even so, the cost is unlikely to be less than $70,000.
It should be noted that all of this is merely an assumption. The true current price for Shahed-136 from both russian and iranian production remains unknown, making it extremely difficult to determine. However, even so, it becomes clear that their price is definitely not $50,000, not $30,000, and especially not $20,000 per unit.
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