Leaked Russian records show order for 90 missile launchers for Iran

The production schedule, drawn up in May 2024 by Russian missile maker Vympel, lists an order for 90 APU-L launchers under export contract K-10, with deliveries scheduled between late 2024 and December 2025. Separate internal paperwork identifies K-10 as Iran, the Financial Times reported on 5 November 2026. The records do not establish whether the launchers were delivered.

A May 2024 letter from Vympel asked the Machine-Building Design Bureau (KBM) to accelerate component deliveries for two launcher types, APU-L and APU-305, warning that delays could jeopardise nine contracts. The Financial Times reported that the accompanying schedule lists seven Russian customers and two foreign buyers: China ordered 192 APU-305 launchers, while the K-10 customer ordered 90 APU-L launchers.

Rosoboronexport, Russia's state arms exporter, uses K-10 to identify Iran, according to the newspaper. Dallas Analytics, a Ukrainian private intelligence organisation, provided the documents to the paper and separately shared them with the Guardian, which reported that a separate production schedule in the same files lists six Yak-130 jet trainers for Iran in 2023, consistent with publicly reported deliveries of those aircraft.

What the launchers carry

Both launcher types are built for the LMUR, also designated Izdeliye 305. The FT reported that the missile entered Russian military service in 2022 and that Russian forces have used it widely in Ukraine. An operator can adjust the missile's flight path after launch, which lets it be aimed at moving targets. Militarnyi, a Ukrainian defence outlet, lists the base missile at 1,945 mm long, with a 200 mm body diameter, a launch mass of 105 kg and a 25 kg high-explosive fragmentation warhead.

Militarnyi lists the stated guaranteed guided range as up to 14.5 km, with a flight altitude of 100 to 600 m and a speed of up to 230 m/s. The Financial Times, citing Dallas Analytics, reported that at roughly 230 m/s the missile covers 14 km in about a minute.

Iran's Mi-28 fleet

According to the US Army's Worldwide Equipment Guide, the APU-L launcher is designed for Russia's Mi-28 attack helicopters and can carry two missiles. The APU-305 configuration carries a single missile. In November 2023, Iran's Deputy Defense Minister announced the purchase of Mi-28 attack helicopters, Su-35 fighter jets and Yak-130 combat trainer aircraft from Russia. Iranian officials said they had finalised arrangements for the Mi-28s. Images published in January 2026 appeared to show an Mi-28 at an aviation facility in Tehran, the Financial Times reported.

The Iranian order is for 90 APU-L launchers, fewer than half the 192 APU-305 launchers listed for China in the same schedule. Each APU-L launcher can carry two missiles. The records do not establish how many helicopters Iran would equip or whether it received any missiles.

Why the leak matters

Nicole Grajewski, a scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told the Financial Times the findings showed Russia's willingness to keep supplying Iran despite its own wartime demands and with less concern about Western objections. The Guardian reported the files emerged as Washington weighs its next steps in its war with Iran after the US midterm elections.

It also reported that US President Donald Trump wrote last month that Russia was doing "very little, if anything" to help Tehran. European intelligence agencies have found Russia providing Iran with data and satellite images that could help it target US forces in the Middle East, and warned Moscow was preparing to supply Tehran with explosive-laden drones for use against the US and Israel, according to the newspaper, which also reported that Moscow denies supplying military equipment to Iran for use in the current conflict.

The same report said Russia and Iran signed a 20-year strategic partnership in 2025, which stops short of the mutual defence commitments in Russia's security pact with North Korea, and that senior Russian and Iranian officials held three high-level meetings in October alone.