The Shahed-136 is particularly vexing for nations on the receiving end of its attacks. The drone poses significant defensive challenges, as both the Houthis out of Yemen and the Russians fighting in Ukraine have shown.

Massed Russian aerial attacks using long-range drones have been a near-daily occurrence over Ukraine in the past several months, as Moscow looks to exhaust Kyiv's air defences alm

Snow, sleet, fog, the lot; when the weather is at its worst is when Russian soldiers tend to go out on assault. After a day and night of steady snowfall, the sky begins to clear just before dawn, during the silent drive to Ukrainian drone positions south of Kupiansk in Kharkiv Oblast.

For weeks, Iranian officials have downplayed the fall of their ally in Syria. But an important general has offered a remarkably candid view of the blow to Iran, and its military’s prospects.

We were defeated and defeated very badly, we took a very big blow, and it’s been very difficult,” Esbati noted.