Russia and Iran working on building joint drone production lines

Iran and Russia have deepened their military alliance and are working on building joint drone production lines, British and US intelligence have warned.

The Ministry of Defence said that the Kremlin was now wholly reliant on Iran to top up its supplies of missiles and drones.

“Iran’s support to the Russian military is likely to grow in the coming months: Russia is attempting to obtain more weapons, including hundreds of ballistic missiles,” it said.

It comes after the US said that Iran is now "Russia's top military backer".

"Russia is seeking to collaborate with Iran in areas like weapons development, training," US national security council spokesman John Kirby said on Friday, adding that the US fears that Russia intended to "provide Iran with advanced military components" including helicopters and air defence systems.