How Iran war is prompting Saudi Arabia to pursue its own Shahed drones
Saudi Arabia is moving to domestically produce a long-range attack drone modeled on Iran’s Shahed-136, signaling a major shift toward scalable, low-cost offensive deterrence.
Riyadh is preparing to domestically manufacture a new long-range loitering munition modeled on Iran’s Shahed-136 drone, in what could become one of the most significant shifts in Gulf military-industrial strategy since the outbreak of the war with Iran.
On May 25, Semafor revealed that a joint venture between Utah-based Vector Defense and Saudi startup SR2 Defense Systems (SR2Vector) is developing a production facility near Riyadh for a one-way attack drone called SKYWASP, modeled on Iran’s Shahed system.
The drone, which reportedly has a range of 1,500 kilometers (more than 900 miles), appears designed specifically around the strategic geography of the Gulf. That distance roughly corresponds to the distance between northeastern Saudi Arabia and Tehran, suggesting that the project is not simply about tactical battlefield support, but about building a long-range deterrent capability shaped by months of Iranian missile and drone attacks across the region.
Since the beginning of the war on Feb. 28, Gulf states have faced sustained waves of missiles and loitering munitions targeting military facilities, energy infrastructure and civilian sites. While most attacks were intercepted, the conflict exposed the economic and operational strain of using expensive air-defense systems against relatively cheap drones.
