Inside Iran's weapons arsenal

Kurdish officials displayed the remnants of a Shahed drone (foreground) they recovered from an Iranian attack.

Ibra Naber/Business Insider

• Iran attacked the Kurdish region in northern Iraq over 400 times during its war with the US and Israel.
• Officials displayed weapons recovered from these strikes.
• They included a new drone jet that's twice as fast as the Shahed drones that are Iran's signature.

Three men unloaded the remains of a monstrous weapon from a white van in Erbil, Iraq last week. Here, in the cordoned-off yard of the Asayish — the security forces of the auton›omous Kurdistan Region in northern Iraq — explosive ordnance disposal specialists examined every Iranian projectile used in this war. "Zolfaghar," one of the Kurds said, tapping the pitch-black metal. "This missile struck near a mosque on the outskirts of the city just a few hours ago."

The Zolfaghar is a large ballistic missile that carries a warhead weighing up to 1,100 pounds. The missile is only one part of the extensive arsenal with which Iran has attacked the Gulf states and the Middle East in recent weeks. In an exclusive presentation for Business Insider, the Asayish unit displayed some of the drones and missiles that have struck Kurdistan since late February, killing 17 people in the region.

These remnants are a gallery of the many weapons Iran has used to kill and terrify people across the region: triangular Shahed long-range drones, hulking ballistic missiles, and a new jet-powered drone that's more difficult to shoot down.

"With the help of Russia, China and North Korea, Iran has succeeded over recent decades in building up an impressive arsenal of effective, technologically sophisticated long-range weapons," the influential Austrian colonel and military analyst Markus Reisner said.

Authorities in the Kurdish region of Iraq have recovered drones and missiles from the many Iranian attacks there during Iran's war with the US and Israel.

Ibra Naber/Business Insider

Tehran's ability to continue carrying out 60 to 90 drone attacks a day — combined with missile strikes — even into the sixth week of the war prolonged the conflict and increased pressure on global energy markets. The American-Israeli alliance struck more than 13,000 targets in Iran, including more than 2,000 command and control targets, but was unable to decisively break its military capabilities, before the US and Iran agreed to a two-week ceasefire on April 7. According to US intelligence assessments reported by CNN, around half of Iran's missile launchers are still intact; in addition, the country continues to possess thousands of long-range kamikaze drones.

The destructive power of Iranian weapons has been demonstrated in this war, Reisner said: "Drones are being deployed in a saturating combination with cruise missiles and rockets. When these weapons systems are combined with targeted satellite reconnaissance from Russia and China, they also develop a troubling degree of precision."

In the yard, Kurdish security forces lined up various pieces of debris. In the center: Iran's most frequently used weapon — Shahed long-range drones, with a range of up to 1,200 miles. Russia uses these lumbering weapons, which have a recognizable delta-wing shape, extensively against Ukraine, usually in improved variants. "We identified three kinds of Iranian Shahed drones," said Halmat, a member of the Kurdish bomb-analysis team. The most frequently used Shahed-136 had more of a lead-colored, metallic surface; others were lighter or black. Their components, however, were very similar.

Officials recovered a new jet-powered drone (at left) designed with sharp angles to reduce its radar signature.

Ibra Naber/Business Insider

Iran also used other models from its roughly dozen combat drones against Kurdistan, including the Meraj-532, a medium-range attack drone used by the Revolutionary Guards. "And that over there," Halmat said, "is a new Iranian drone, the Hadid-110."

It is a jet-powered attack that can race past many air defenses and slam into targets at over twice the speed of most Shaheds. The drone is launched with a rocket booster that accelerates it before the jet engine takes over for sustained flight. Its design similarly reflects the growing sophistication of Iran's designs: A triangular wing configuration combined with sharply angled surfaces intended to hide it from radar. One of these drone jets slammed into a home in a neighborhood outside Erbil, the EOD specialists said.

Smaller combat drones with a shorter range have also appeared in the Iran war. Videos released in March by Iranian-backed militias show small piloted drones hitting hangars and a helicopter near a US base in Iraq. Even advanced air defenses struggled to defeat threats this small and numerous.

The bulky remains of the Kheibar ballistic missile lay at the back of the yard. "They also used it to strike civilian areas here in the region," said Pishtiwan, who is part of the engineering team of the Asayish security forces. He pointed to the markings left on the 10-meter-long missile. "This happened on March 19 in the Mala Omer area, outside the city. We found it at 12:55 p.m."

Kurdish EOD specialists recovered fragments from an Iranian Kheibar ballistic missile that struck the region.

Ibra Naber/Business Insider

In total, Iran attacked the Erbil region alone with more than 400 drones and ballistic missiles, Halmat said: "And we have defused and collected more than 200 bombs."

Pishtiwan explained that after every explosion in the region, one of their specialized units is dispatched to assess the damage and identify the weapon. The risk of being caught in a so-called double-tap attack — a second strike hitting the same target just minutes later — is very real. "But it is our duty to protect our people. We are ready to sacrifice our lives for this country."

According to military expert Reisner, Iran's weapons have also inflicted considerable damage on the United States and Israel. "Iranian strikes in Israel and in the middle of American bases made that abundantly clear in recent weeks."

The past weeks have also delivered a painful lesson in the Kurdistan Region: not even the United States — the most advanced military in the world — can fully protect its bases and diplomatic facilities in a modern drone war.

The Erbil region has been struck over 400 times by Iranian drones and missiles, authorities there said.

Ibra Naber/Business Insider

During the attacks on Erbil, Iran and its allied militias targeted both the US military installation at the airport and the US consulate, which opened in late 2025 at a cost of nearly $800 million. Kurdish security forces shared videos with Business Insider showing damage from impacts on the consulate grounds, though the destruction does not appear to have been extensive. The French military was hit harder. A drone strike killed a French soldier in March in a town near Erbil, which President Emmanuel Macron confirmed was the country's first military death in the Middle East war.

Kurdish security forces said they are almost entirely dependent on Western air defenses. A Patriot system fought off Iranian ballistic missiles over the last few weeks. Drone defenses were numerous. The C-RAM gun system fired bursts, including glowing tracer rounds, at incoming drones. And US fighter jets like the F-16 Fighting Falcon regularly took off to hunt drones, as seen in videos from Kurdistan. According to media reports, the Raytheon Coyote drone was also used to destroy several drones in flight.

Kurdish security officials say that, according to their information, no Ukrainian drone specialists were stationed in Kurdistan for air defense. Kyiv had deployed more than 200 drone experts during the conflict with Iran, primarily to Gulf states, to provide support.

According to Reisner, Iran's waves of attacks are also a final warning for Europe. "The range of Iranian missiles extends to the periphery of Europe. The US missile defense system stationed in Europe — the European Phased Adaptive Approach, or EPAA — and national procurement initiatives such as Germany's introduction of the Israeli 'Arrow' system are therefore of great importance."

Ibrahim Naber is a foreign correspondent who has reported from Ukraine since 2022. In October 2025, he and his team were injured in a Russian Lancet drone strike in Dnipro. In 2025, he received the George Weidenfeld Prize for his coverage of global conflicts and crisis zones. He wrote his dissertation at King's College London on the psychology of modern drone warfare.

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An Anthropic cofounder's advice on what to study in college

Anthropic cofounder Jack Clark joked that Anthropic is making it a great time to be a philsophy major.

Bloomberg/Getty Images

• Anthropic cofounder Jack Clark says his literature degree proved to be a great match for working in AI.
• He said the best majors will involve "synthesis across a whole variety of subjects."
• Clark pointed out that Anthropic employs philosophers.

Anthropic cofounder Jack Clark says you shouldn't write off liberal arts majors.

After all, Clark, a former journalist who studied literature at the University of East Anglia, is one of them.

"What turned out to be useful is that I got to learn a lot about history and a lot about the kind of stories that we tell ourselves about the future," Clark said on Monday during Semafor's World Economy Summit. "That's turned out to be like, extremely relevant for AI in a way that I think people wouldn't have predicted."

Clark said that the best areas of study are those that have a lot of overlap.

"I think that majors which are going to become more important are ones which involve like synthesis across a whole variety of subjects and analytical thinking about that," he said.

The best skill, Clark said, is learning how to ask the right question.

"The really important thing is knowing the right questions to ask and having intuitions about what would be interesting, colliders, different insights from many different disciplines," he said.

After repeated pressing, Clark said that "rote programming" is something he would avoid. That's on brand with his Anthropic colleagues, including Boris Cherny, the creator of Claude Code, who has said the title of software engineer will start to be phased out this year.

"Some people need to know those fundamentals, but we do see that technology move up the stack," Clark said.

Overall, though, Clark said that majors that may seem mismatched to the age of AI will actually be fairly worthwhile. He pointed out that Anthropic employs philosophers.

"When was the last time you heard that a philosophy degree was like a great job prospect?" he said.

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The ultimate do-nothing side hustle: selling courses

The most 'ethical' AI company might also be the web's biggest freeloader

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei

Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg via Getty Images

• Cloudflare's data shows that AI companies consume more web value than they return.
• Anthropic's crawl-to-refer ratio is 8,800 to 1, highlighting ethical concerns.
• AI chatbots reduce web traffic, upending the web's grand bargain.

Cloudflare's latest data offers one of the clearest snapshots yet of how AI companies consume the web, and how little they give back.

The company, which powers roughly 20% of the internet, tracks how AI bots crawl websites versus how often those platforms send users back through referrals. The resulting "crawl-to-refer" ratio is a simple yet telling metric: how much value is extracted compared to returned.

The early April 2026 figures are stark. Anthropic is the worst by a wide margin, with a ratio of 8,800 to 1. That means its bots crawl webpages 8,800 times for every referral sent.

OpenAI follows at 993 to 1. Microsoft, Google, and DuckDuckGo look far more balanced by comparison.

Anthropic's position is particularly striking given its reputation for being "ethical." That reputation has made it a preferred choice among some users who want to support more responsible AI development. This data highlights a different dimension of ethics — how companies interact with the broader web ecosystem that provides information for AI model outputs.

Historically, the internet operated on an implicit bargain: websites allowed search engines to crawl and index their content for free, and in return received traffic they could monetize. Generative AI breaks that bargain. Chatbots increasingly provide direct answers, reducing the need for users to click through to original sources.

This results in a system that extracts more value than it gives back — and in some cases, increases costs for site owners due to heavy bot activity.

Anthropic has previously questioned Cloudflare's methodology and pointed to growing referral traffic from new features. Still, the broader trend is hard to ignore. I asked Anthropic for comment this time, too, and it did not respond.

If the web's economic engine depends on traffic and referrals, these ratios raise a fundamental question: What will incentivize the sharing of verified information online in the future?

Cloudflare is trying with a new marketplace for web content. It's unclear if efforts like this will succeed. After all, what's better than using people's content for free?

Sign up for BI's Tech Memo newsletter here. Reach out to me via email at abarr@businessinsider.com.

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How Taco Bell uses its best GMs as a growth engine

Top-performing Taco Bell managers gathered in Hawaii in March for the company's annual staff recognition retreat.

Courtesy of Taco Bell

• Taco Bell recently hosted its Golden Bell awards, a recognition trip for top-performing managers.
• More than a management retreat, Taco Bell says the event helps drive outsize growth.
• Golden Bell-winning restaurants grew sales by nearly 20% in 2025 and boast better staff retention.

At Taco Bell, a weeklong trip to Hawaii is more than a perk for top-performing managers — it's part of the company's growth strategy.

The chain's annual Golden Bell awards, held this year in mid-March, recognize its top 150 general managers and are as much a management retreat as they are an awards show. Taco Bell brings its top GMs to Maui, where they get a week of recognition, excursions, and a chance to compare notes with company leaders and one another.

Like many companies, Taco Bell uses retreats and recognition to reward top-performing managers. However, what sets the taco chain's approach apart is the continued bet that its general managers — not solely its menu or marketing — are a key competitive edge, even as other companies scale back middle management.

In its fourth quarter, Taco Bell delivered 7% same-store sales growth, outpacing the industry, and the company says Golden Bell winners were a big part of that performance. The company said its award-winning restaurant leaders grew sales 19% in 2025, often running high-volume locations with annual sales volumes of $2.5 million to $4 million and beyond.

Michelle Beasley, Taco Bell's US chief operating officer, told Business Insider that the award process is built around a small set of business metrics tied to the brand's goals.

Winners are selected from three categories: highest transaction growth, the company's "Supreme" operational-excellence measure, and guest reviews. Beasley said Taco Bell is intentionally focused on consumer-facing metrics because those are the measures the company believes most directly drive performance.

She also stressed that the company is thinking about how to scale good habits across the system, and sees the event as a way to spread winning traits beyond the 150 honorees. The leaders who rise to the top, Beasley said, tend to be the ones who "lead from the front," communicate clearly, and take care of the team around them.

"Culture is fueling our results," Jamie Harrison, Taco Bell's global chief people and culture officer, told Business Insider. "We're a people-first culture, and we see that when we pour into our teams, like with Golden Bell, they also have a chance to do that for their teams, too."

Kimberly Hairrell, Taco Bell's GM of the Year, who received her second Golden Bell award this year, told Business Insider that her path to the top was shaped by 50-hour workweeks as she battled a cancer diagnosis, and a team that refused to let her carry the burden alone.

"My team is what made it happen," she said. For Hairrell, the award was less about personal recognition than about proving that "you can still achieve things that you set your mind to."

Noah Starkey, who won his first Golden Bell this year — his second year being the manager of his own store — described a similar mindset. He started as a crew member in college and worked his way up to GM over five years, and said the key to winning was not simply sales growth, but focus on customers, employees, and consistency.

Both Hairrell and Starkey shared a competitive nature, already setting their sights on achieving Golden Bell status next year.

That kind of internal competition is exactly what Taco Bell is trying to create: a system where top performers raise the bar for everyone else.

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These 6 airlines offer beds in economy, with prices ranging from $150 to $2,600. Here's how to book them.

The "Relax Row" will give coach travelers a glimpse into what flying business class feels like.

Patrick T. Fallon / AFP

• Air New Zealand pioneered the economy bed by adding flippable legrests that create a sleep surface.
• United Airlines has since licensed the idea for its "Relax Row," coming in 2027.
• Some carriers offer a bed in economy by charging extra for a guaranteed empty row.

For many economy flyers, the best long-haul sleep hack is simply lucking out with a row to themselves. A handful of airlines are betting some will pay to guarantee it.

United Airlines recently made headlines for its upcoming "Relax Row" — a set of three economy seats with legrests that flip up to create a fully flat bed-like space. It's designed to give budget-conscious travelers a taste of business class without the high price tag.

The move fits into the airline's broader push toward premium offerings as demand for more comfort booms. United reported an 11% year-over-year increase in premium revenue in 2025.

United didn't pioneer the coach bed, though.

The idea dates back to 2011, when Air New Zealand introduced its "Skycouch" with flippable legrests on Boeing widebody aircraft and patented the product. The airline told Business Insider it has since licensed the concept to other carriers, including fellow Star Alliance member United.

Air New Zealand has expanded on the idea, too. It is soon introducing a bunk-style "Skynest" to its economy cabin later this year, designed to complement the Skycouch. It's expected to be sold in hourly blocks for a fee.

United hasn't said what the price of its Relax Row will be yet. Similar seats on other airlines — some without flippable legrests that are more like benches — range from a few hundred dollars to over $2,500 each way.

Some carriers allow flyers to select the bed-style seat during booking, while others require it to be done after via a request process or at the airport. These airlines have beds in economy:

Air New Zealand's Skynest

I tried the Skynest in 2022. It was tight but cozy with linens, a seatbelt, and curtains for privacy. It's unclear what changes have been made since I saw it.

Taylor Rains/Business Insider

Air New Zealand markets its economy beds as added options for coach flyers. The Skynest is the newest product and will be two sets of three-high flat bunks with linens, curtains, and seatbelts.

Air New Zealand is showing its Skynest off to the public in New York City on April 14.

Air New Zealand's Skycouch

The author flew solo in Air New Zealand's Skycouch in 2022.

Taylor Rains/Business Insider

The legrest-equipped Skycouch revolutionized economy air travel and became a blueprint for other airlines. The legrests flip up 90 degrees via a button and lock into place to make the flat sleeping surface.

It comes with linens and a "cuddle belt" to wear when sleeping, but customers still get the regular economy meals and boarding position. I flew in the Skycouch for 16 hours in 2022 and thought it was comfortable and a great sleep solution if you have the budget. The bed is just over five feet long, though, so taller travelers may be more cramped.

Passengers can secure the Skyouch at the time of booking. The price can vary by season and route, but the most expensive one-way tickets are over $1,500. It can accommodate up to two adults and a child.

United Airlines' Relax Row

United is adding "Relax Rows" to certain Boeing widebodies. Customers can fly them starting in 2027.

Patrick T. Fallon / AFP

Launching in 2027 on long-haul flights, the Relax Row mirrors the Skycouch and will be fitted onto more than 200 Boeing widebody planes by 2030.

It can be selected at booking and comes with two extra pillows, a blanket, and a mattress pad. It's unclear what the launch route will be.

All Nippon Airways' COUCHii

The COUCHii is located in the back of the main level of the A380.

All Nippon Airways

ANA, another Star Alliance member airline, sells the COUCHii on flights between Japan and Hawaii. It is bookable up to 48 hours before the flight, either by requesting it on the website or by phone.

COUCHiis are exclusively on Airbus A380 planes and stretch three or four seats with legrests that flip up to create a wide bed.

ANA's website shows the cheapest option is $130 for all four seats for four people traveling together during low season; the most expensive is $2,580 for four seats for one person during high season.

Lufthansa's Sleeper Row

The Sleeper Row is a row of empty seats with no legrests.

Lufthansa

The German flag carrier offers first-come, first-served "Sleeper Rows" that can only be booked at the airport for select long-haul flights of at least 11 hours, subject to availability.

Essentially, Lufthansa passengers can pay extra right before their flight to secure an empty row that would otherwise have gone unsold.

It doesn't have flippable legrests, but it comes with "business-class quality" linens and space to stretch out. The per-segment cost ranges from $209 to $299.

Air Astana's Economy Sleeper

The economy sleeper is meant for one person.

Air Astana

The Kazakh airline allows travelers to pay to reserve a row of three seats on select flights to Beijing, London, and Frankfurt. It comes with a blanket, mattress cover, and pillow, but no flippable legrests.

The ticket also includes business-class lounge access, priority check-in, and two extra checked bags. Air Astana says the experience is a "nominal" increase over the regular economy fare.

Vietnam Airlines' SkySofa

The economy seats on Vietnam Airlines' 787, one of the planes that has the sleeper option.

Vietnam Airlines

The SkySofa is another upcharge for a guaranteed row of three empty seats for one person; it can be added at booking or after.

Vietnam Airlines offers the option on flights between Vietnam and 18 countries, including the US. It includes personal amenities, like an eye mask and socks, and meals equal to those in premium economy.

The SkySofa price ranges from $150 to $650 one-way, depending on the economy fare type booked and the route.

Some early adopters abandoned economy beds.

China Airlines' Family Couch.

China Airlines

China Airlines began marketing the "Family Couch" in 2014 but pulled it in 2018 due to low demand. Defunct UK airline Thomas Cook had a "Sleeper Seat" that flew until the airline declared bankruptcy in 2019.

Azul Brazilian Airlines, which once offered a four-seat-wide "Sky Sofa" on Airbus A330s, told Business Insider that the product was "discontinued due to fleet renewal and the configuration of current aircraft."

French carrier Air Austral's website mentions a bed-like "Extra Couchette" on Boeing 777s, but current seat maps and booking options don't show it. It's unclear if it's been discontinued; the airline didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Would recording every meeting make the world a better place? This hedge fund cofounder thinks so

Coatue Management cofounder Thomas Laffont argued for recording work meetings so that "you know what the problem is."

Paul Morigi/Getty Images for The Hill & Valley Forum

• Coatue Management's Thomas Laffont likes the idea of recording and analyzing meetings to flag worrying behavior.
• The hedge fund leader told TBPN that recording meetings would lead to a "better world," though it would likely hurt morale.
• Ray Dalio's Bridgewater famously tried recording meetings in the past in an effort to boost transparency.

In the era of Zoom calls and hybrid work, white-collar workers are used to being on camera. Whether their employer should analyze the footage is another question.

Thomas Laffont, cofounder of the hedge fund giant Coatue Management, made his case for the idea on TBPN this week: "I believe that meetings should be recorded."

Laffont said that while a compliance department might say "we can't have meetings being recorded because it creates a paper trail," doing so would lead to a "better world."

Laffont referenced two hypothetical scenarios with a bad actor. In the first, meetings are not recorded, and someone speaks out a decade later to say there was a "pattern of deception" but that "nothing happened."

In the second, meetings are recorded. When the individual acts poorly, they get an email from the compliance system. The next time, they get flagged to human resources.

"I would much rather live in world number two," Laffont said. "You know what the problem is. There's a system."

Laffont presented the idea as merely a theory: "Let's not even talk about Coatue specifically," he told the TBPN hosts. When Business Insider asked whether Coatue Management records its meetings, the hedge fund declined to comment.

Evan Fray-Witzer, an employment lawyer from Boston, said that the legality of Laffont's idea would vary state by state, but that it would likely be legal if employees were notified in advance as a "condition of employment." How such recordings would be kept could present another issue, Fray-Witzer said, as storing confidential information in the cloud could create compliance problems.

Laffont didn't seem intent on the idea of storing the calls, and drew a distinction between transcription and recording. He wasn't looking for a database of all the call transcripts, he said. Instead, he wanted key takeaways, what was agreed upon, and whether anything was done in violation of compliance.

"I like the option of deleting," he said.

Fray-Witzer also said that there were many reasons not to record your employees on a strategic level, not a legal one.

"It'll probably be horrible for employee morale," he said. "It just has such a Big Brother feel to it."

Ray Dalio, the founder of hedge fund Bridgewater Associates, was famously a fan of keeping logs, with the firm recording meetings and playing them back to employees in the 2010s. Bridgewater later began taping and keeping fewer meetings, Rob Copeland wrote in his book "The Fund," on the recommendation of former deputy attorney general Jamie Gorelick.

Laffont also noted analytics systems were getting better. "They're going to be able to look at your WhatsApp and your messages and your emails and all of your calls and they're going to be able to say, 'Hey, by the way, don't say this,'" he said.

Many employees are already recording their meetings — not to document bad actors, but to keep notes. AI notetaking agents are all the rage in Zoom and Teams calls, spawning a cottage industry.

Laffont said the idea wouldn't necessarily be to only penalize employees presenting problematic behavior; the goal would be to set them on a better path.

"Maybe that person, if they had gotten that first warning, might have realized: 'Oh wait, you're right, I'm being abusive,'" he said.

Should meetings be recorded? Take our survey

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