Russia is establishing production of Shahed drones with turbojet engine and range of 2,500 km – DIU. PHOTOS
Since the beginning of 2025, there have been a number of significant changes in the design of the Shahed-136. Russia is upgrading the drones it uses for almost daily attacks in Ukraine.
This is reported by the DIU, Censor.NET reports.
The specialised intelligence portal War&Sanctions published another set of data on foreign components in Russian weapons, including drones.
A new combat unit
In particular, since the beginning of 2025, intelligence has recorded a number of significant changes in the structure of the Shahed-136 UAV (Russian names: "Geranium-2" and "Harpia"):
- A new type of warhead weighing 90 kg has been introduced.
- The flight controller, power distribution unit, and battery pack have been relocated from the nose to the tail section.
- Additional ballast has been installed on the drone's structure.
Chinese components instead of Western ones
In addition, scouts discovered a sticker on the 8-channel CRP satellite navigation antenna labeled "Agricultural equipment parts" in both Chinese and English.
According to the Defense Intelligence of Ukraine (DIU), the serial number indicated that the equipment was manufactured in 2024.
At the same time, the DIU explains that the manufacturing method and the color of the antenna’s casing resemble other components and assemblies of the "Shahed" Ы-series drones produced by Iran and Russia. Therefore, the sticker may have been used to mislead about the actual origin and purpose of the equipment.
New series of Shaheds
The DIU stressed that Russia is increasingly using Chinese technology instead of Western components. For example, in the aforementioned 8-channel antenna of the latest versions of the Shahed-136, the Russians replaced the American XILINX Kintex-7 with a chip made by Beijing Microelectronics Technology (China).
In addition, new UAV series have been launched at Russian production facilities:
- The "Ы" and "Ъ" series are manufactured at the plant in Yelabuga.
- The "KC" series is produced at the "Kupol" plant in Izhevsk, complementing the previous "K" and "KB" models.
- The use of new 12-channel CRP "Kometa" antennas has also been recorded, replacing the 8-channel "Kometa M8".
Decoy drones with a warhead
At the same time, Russians use disposable Telegram bots and Raspberry Pi mini-computers, webcams, and 3G/LTE modems to film and transmit video images of targets.
In addition, Russian troops have begun to equip Gerbera drones, which previously served as simulator drones, with warheads: the UAVs manufactured in Yelabuga are equipped with a high-explosive fragmentation munition OFBF-2.5 and KZ-6 cumulative engineering munitions.
"A fuze is used to activate the warhead, which is connected to the flight controller via a RUICHI SSR-10D solid-state relay," explains the GUR.
The intelligence agency added that Russia is establishing production of a jet-powered Shahed-238 analogue, the "Geran-3," equipped with compact Tolou-10/13 twin-circuit turbojet engines. This drone is capable of reaching speeds of 550-600 km/h with a range of up to 2,500 km.
According to the War&Sanctions portal, Russian weaponry has been found to contain 4,400 foreign components, along with 140 types of UAVs and 88 companies involved in their production.
