The Russians installed jet engines in Iranian drones
Since the beginning of the conflict in Ukraine, Russia has hurriedly started developing its drones, conquering Chinese and Iranian technology, improving it, but also creating its own models.
This rapid evolution can be seen most clearly in the Iranian "Shahid 136" family of drones, known in the Russian variant as "Geran 2".
Unmanned "kamikaze" drones with a range of more than 1,000 kilometers suddenly appeared in Russia last summer, when the need for massive airstrikes on critical Ukrainian infrastructure arose in the deep background.
Due to the presence of a serious Ukrainian air defense system, Russia's aerospace forces cannot operate freely in Ukrainian skies. Recently, modified glide bombs with correction modules that can operate several tens of kilometers from the front line have also appeared. However, despite this, the stocks of expensive missiles in Russian warehouses are not unlimited.
That's why the Russian General Staff decided to try to penetrate the Ukrainian air defense and anti-missile defense system with mass strikes by Iranian drones. The Shahid 136, called "Geran 2" in Russia, was almost ideal for this task, as these attack drones have many more advantages than disadvantages.
Their two-stroke engine is a "mado md 550" (a copy of the German L550E aircraft engine) with a power of 50 HP and is capable of delivering the warhead at a distance of 1000 to 2000 kilometers. The cruise speed of the missile is 150-170 kilometers per hour, and it flies at an altitude of 60 to 4000 meters, which makes detection and interception difficult.
The main feature of these drones is their technical simplicity and low manufacturing cost, which allows them to be produced on a conveyor belt and used en masse. This can be seen on the Ukrainian battlefield.
The disadvantages of "shahid" or "geran" are also well known: low speed and a specific, clearly audible sound of a "moped" in flight, as well as the absence of a trajectory change mode. However, it seems that Russian engineers have managed to solve these problems.
Vladimir Popov, a retired Russian general, recently stated that new generations of "kamikaze" drones equipped with jet engines are emerging.
Gerans with piston engines of the first generation could move 180-200 kilometers per hour, and during demolition the speed increased to 300 kilometers.
Now they can move 450 to 600 kilometers per hour, and sometimes up to 800, and when they crash, they reach even higher speeds.
Such a significant increase in the speed of the drone by two and a half times reduces the time for their detection, determining the route, tracking and acting on them. In addition to this, the new Russian "Gerans" will have a higher operating ceiling of up to 8,500 meters, which is above the height limit for intercepting a number of missile systems.
The disadvantage is the reduced range of these missile drones, the combat radius from 1000-2000 has been reduced to 600-850, but, as Russian sources claim, this is quite enough for the Ukrainian front.
In parallel with the new drive, the types of warheads are also being modified. In one variant, the Russians put thermobaric warheads in "Geran 2" that burn everything around them at a temperature of several thousand degrees.
The TOS 1A system, which uses thermobaric warheads, has a range of only 6 to 7 kilometers. "Smerch" can launch a missile with a thermobaric warhead at a distance of up to 70 km. Geran's flight range can reach 2000 km, depending on the engine type. Therefore, this modification is considered a huge improvement of this type of weapon.
The new "Gerans" are currently available in two versions. The first, which were recently used for the attack on Kiev, have a "mini solncepok" charge of 40 kilograms, and thermobaric munitions can burn fuel depots and other locations.
The second option is equipped with a miniature jet engine with a cruising speed of 465 and a maximum speed of up to 600 kilometers per hour.
Western-made Ukrainian air defense systems will find it three times more difficult to shoot down Russian drones.
When "Geran 2" climbs to a height of more than 8,000 meters and begins to dive towards the target, it accelerates to 745 kilometers per hour, which makes it difficult for American radars to locate them.
Od početka sukoba u Ukrajini Rusija je užurbano počela da razvija svoje bespilotne letelice, osvajajući kinesku i iransku tehnologiju, poboljšavajući je ali i stvarajući sopstvene modele.
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