Russia arranged to supply Iran with 90 launchers for advanced guided missiles, the Guardian reported on Thursday, citing leaked defence industry documents. Dallas Analytics, a Ukrainian private intelligence firm, obtained the files and shared them with the newspaper. The launchers are for the LMUR, a guided missile fired from attack helicopters. Russian forces have used it heavily against Ukrainian targets since the full-scale invasion in 2022.
Vympel, a leading Russian designer of missiles and launch systems, drew up a production schedule in May 2024. It lists an order for 90 launchers under an export contract called "K-10". Deliveries were planned between late 2024 and December 2025. Separate internal paperwork explicitly identifies K-10 as Iran.
The records do not prove the launchers reached Iran. However, another schedule in the files lists six Yak-130 jet trainers for Iran in 2023. According to the Guardian, that matches publicly reported deliveries of the aircraft. The May 2024 letter also reveals strain in Russia's arms industry. Vympel warned that late deliveries of key components threatened launcher assembly and Russian state defence contracts.
The leak comes as Washington weighs its next steps in its war against Iran after the US midterm elections. President Donald Trump has repeatedly played down Moscow's support for Tehran. Last month he wrote that Russia was doing "very little, if anything" to help Iran. He said he did not want to push Moscow away from talks to end the war in Ukraine.
European intelligence findings tell a different story, according to the Guardian. They say Russia has given Iran key data and satellite images that could help it target US forces in the Middle East. European agencies have also warned that Moscow was preparing to send Tehran explosive-laden drones for use against the US and Israel. Moscow has denied supplying military equipment to Iran for the current conflict.
Observers widely see Russia as one of the main winners of the war. Shipping disruption in the Strait of Hormuz and attacks on Gulf energy sites have pushed up global energy prices. That has boosted the Kremlin's oil revenue. The war has also pulled Western attention and military resources away from Ukraine, including scarce US-made Patriot interceptors.
Military ties between Moscow and Tehran have grown since 2022, when Iran became a key supplier of Shahed attack drones to Russia. The two countries signed a strategic partnership agreement in 2025, though it has no mutual defence clause. In October alone, senior Russian and Iranian officials held three high-level meetings.