Geran-4
Fast, high-flying jet Geran between the Geran-3 and the Geran-5
The delta-wing jet Geran, in use since May 2026 according to The War Zone. With a more powerful Chinese turbojet than the Geran-3 it flies faster and higher, out of MANPADS reach and above many cheap interceptor drones. More numerous than the Geran-5. Figures rest on Ukrainian analyses and Western OSINT, not independently confirmed.
Learn more in the Drone Academy →Dimensionsfor imagery analysis
- Drone (L × span)
- 3.5 × 2.5 m — same as Shahed-136 per WEG; uncertain
- Max. take-off weight
- 450 kg
- Dimension source
- US Army TRADOC Worldwide Equipment Guide (ODIN)
Key data
- Altitude
- up to ~8 km (~26,000 ft)
- Speed
- ~450–500 km/h (TWZ); topwar earlier gave 300–500 km/h, but wrote on 16 Oct 2026 that jet Gerans (Geran-4/-5) reach ~600 km/h, and up to ~800 km/h in strikes on western Ukraine according to the monitoring source AMK Mapping (variant not named) — source: RU Mil Tracker e-20261017-s02; not independently confirmed
- Range
- documented flight of > 700 km (TWZ); topwar gives ~450 km
- Engine
- Chinese Telefly TF-TJ2000A, ~2.5× the thrust of the Geran-3's JT80; today.ua names the LX-WP-160 for one version. According to HUR (5 Oct 2026), the upgraded version replaces the Telefly with a localised Russian copy built at Alabuga — source: Ukrainska Pravda (5 Oct 2026), RU Mil Tracker e-20261001-02; not independently confirmed
Relevance
- Tactics
- High altitude above cheap interceptors; per one OSINT analyst a Geran-4 sometimes cuts its engine and glides slowly before diving on the target — source: TWZ, RU Mil Tracker e-20260930-03
- Employment (claim, Oct 2026)
- According to a Ukrainian air defence commander on the Zaporizhzhia front, Russia now sends jet Gerans one at a time at 20–30 minute intervals rather than in groups; they climb and accelerate over occupied territory and appear on screens only late, at 5,000–8,000 m. They are operator-controlled via mesh networks in which drones relay the radio signal to each other. Conventional interceptor drones cannot catch them — source: Ukrainska Pravda, RU Mil Tracker e-20261022-04; not independently confirmed
- Video camera
- Confirmed by police forensics after deadly strikes on Chernihiv (Jul./Aug. 2026); used to film impacts and as a signal relay for a Geran-5 (claim, Sep 2026) — source: RU Mil Tracker e-20260929-s07
- Components
- 96 foreign components in a Geran-4 downed on 12 Aug 2026 — source: RU Mil Tracker e-20260909-02. An engineer of Ukraine's 1230th Athena regiment took apart the on-board computer of a Geran-4 recovered near Poltava in 2026 (boards dated 23 Jun–12 Aug 2026, serial numbers with the Alabuga prefix 'AL'): of 105 identified components, 80 (~76%) are US-made, 61 (58%) of them from Texas Instruments/National Semiconductor (including seven TMS320F28335 processors), 11 Chinese, 2 German (Infineon) and none Russian; a mesh modem points to the 'Siker' variant — source: Militarnyi (15 Oct 2026), RU Mil Tracker e-20261017-06; not independently confirmed
- Interception
- Downed by, among others, the STING S (Wild Hornets, ~10 claims), a MiG-29 with its onboard cannon (Odesa, Sep 2026) and a PC-9 with Minigun pods (RUSI) — sources: RU Mil Tracker e-20260921-01, e-20260928-s08, e-20260926-s05; claims, not independently confirmed
- Production (claim)
- ~3,000 Geran-4/-5 a month per Ukrainian military intelligence — source: TWZ, RU Mil Tracker e-20260930-03
- Production (HUR, Oct 2026)
- Russia builds ≈ 10,000 drones a month, mainly at Alabuga: ≈ 4,000 jet drones (mostly Geran-4 and Geran-5, 400–500 km/h) plus ≈ 2,000 cheaper Geran-2s used to wear down and locate air defences. The 2026 state order for Geran drones and decoys such as the Gerbera exceeds 100,000; ≈ 6,200 Gerans held in reserve. Production has shifted to jet drones since the summer, which HUR attributes to mobile fire groups downing slow targets en masse — source: Euromaidan Press / NV, RU Mil Tracker e-20261023-02; Ukrainian estimate, cannot be independently verified
- Power-line variant (claim, Sep–Oct 2026)
- On 30 Sep 2026, according to Serhii Beskrestnov, Russia first used a jet drone with a KRSN cutting charge (40 kg main charge + four extra modules) against high-voltage pylons and steel bridges. According to Militarnyi (2 Oct 2026) it is a Geran-4 with linear shaped charges in a revolver-cylinder layout. Per Beskrestnov, the 'whiskers' on the nose are a mechanical contact fuze with no electronics: on impact a rod touches the surrounding tube, closes the circuit and fires the warhead — source: Ukrainska Pravda / Defence Blog / Militarnyi / Defense Express, RU Mil Tracker e-20261001-02 and e-20261004-s03; not independently confirmed
- Navigation (HUR, Oct 2026)
- According to Ukraine's military intelligence (HUR), the upgraded Geran-4 has a new MOKh module with PNI Sensor's US-made PNI5GA magnetometer, which works with the SADRA inertial navigation module to limit gyroscope drift. It also carries 'Susanin' optical correlation navigation, which compares camera images with a stored reference image, alongside satellite and inertial navigation — source: Ukrainska Pravda (5 Oct 2026), RU Mil Tracker e-20261001-02; not independently confirmed
- Anti-jam antenna (Oct 2026)
- A 32-element CRPA antenna was found in a downed Geran-4: effectively two 16-element antennas in one housing, 16 elements for GPS L1 and 16 for L2 — far more than the 12-element Kometa-M on earlier Gerans. The housing is marked 'ALB' and was probably made in Alabuga; the design resembles a Chinese Harxon antenna — source: The Insider via Militarnyi (10 Oct 2026), RU Mil Tracker e-20261012-04; not independently confirmed
- AI target recognition (claim, Oct 2026)
- According to Colonel Yurii Cherevashenko (Deputy Commander for Air Defence of the Ukrainian Air Force), Russia has fitted the Geran-4 with machine vision, allowing it to recognise and track targets on its own in the final seconds of flight; he also suspects AI-assisted planning of the wave attacks on Odesa. Ukrainian assessment, not independently confirmed — source: Ukrinform via Euromaidan Press / Interfax-Ukraine, RU Mil Tracker e-20261008-01
- Use against merchant shipping (Oct 2026)
- In mid-October 2026 Geran-4 jet drones hit two cargo ships in Ukrainian ports, near Mykolaiv and at Chornomorsk. This coincides with a drone campaign against merchant ships off Romania and Bulgaria (at least eight ships hit since 5 Oct; drone type and launcher there not officially established). According to analyst David Axe, Russia is now also targeting Ukraine's Danube grain ports of Izmail, Reni and Kiliia — source: Euromaidan Press (16 Oct 2026), RU Mil Tracker e-20261017-02; not independently confirmed
- See also
- The Geran-3 (predecessor, JT80) and Geran-5 (Karrar-derived) cards
News archive 51
Analysed reports from the RU Mil Tracker about this system, newest first. Archive since 2026-07-17.
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Helsing unveils AD-2 'Ambush' counter-UAS interceptor missile (engagement altitude above 9 km) as part of its Contra air-defence suite, aimed at Russia's fast jet-powered Geran drones
German defence company Helsing presented its Contra air-defence offering on 26 October 2026: two new interceptor missiles plus AI software that automatically calculates the order and distance of intercepts. According to Defense News, the company says Contra can down fast attack drones for under $100,000 per shot; it is still in testing, is expected to be ma…
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«Быстрый и дешёвый»: Украина разрабатывает перехватчик для российских «Гераней» (Topwar: '"Fast and cheap": Ukraine is developing an interceptor for Russian Gerans')
Topwar (Voennoye Obozreniye) reports that Ukraine is developing a relatively cheap interceptor drone to shoot down Russia's jet-powered Geran drones. Citing The New York Times, the article names the Ukrainian company F-Drones and its jet-powered F-Jet 80, designed to counter the Geran-4 and Geran-5. According to the company, the interceptor will get artific…
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Russia fields two new Geran-5 derivatives with optical navigation, aiming for cruise-missile speeds
Russia has begun using two new jet-powered small cruise missiles that appear to be derivatives of the Geran-5, Militarnyi reported on 23 October, citing its own sources in the Ukrainian Defence Forces and a post by Serhii "Flash" Beskrestnov, adviser to the Ukrainian president on defence technology, who published a photo of the second type on 22 October. Th…
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HUR: Russia keeps missile stocks steady at up to 700 ballistic and several thousand cruise missiles, produces 200+ missiles a month, and has ordered over 100,000 Geran-type drones and decoys for 2026
According to figures Ukraine's military intelligence (HUR) gave the Ukrainian outlet NV, published on 20 October 2026 and reported by Euromaidan Press, Russia holds up to 700 ballistic missiles and several thousand cruise missiles in reserve, roughly the same level HUR reported in July despite the autumn mass strikes. Russia can produce more than 200 missil…
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Romanian F-16s shoot down two jet-powered drones believed to be Russia's new Geran-4; analyst warns European NATO is not ready for swarms of such low-cost cruise missiles
Romanian F-16 fighters shot down two jet-powered Geran-family drones over Romania's territorial waters in the Black Sea on 17 October 2026, the Romanian Defence Ministry said. Interim Defence Minister Radu Miruță said the drones flew at about 450 km/h and were likely Geran-4s, which would make them the first of that type Romania has downed. The identificati…
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«Вслед за «Геранями Сикер» ВС РФ начали применять реактивные БПЛА «Гарпия-А1»» (Topwar: 'Following the Geran Seekers, the Russian Armed Forces have begun using jet-powered Garpiya-A1 UAVs')
Topwar reports that Russian forces have begun using a jet-powered version of the Garpiya-A1 loitering munition, following the jet Geran-4/5 'Seeker' drones. The claim rests on a video circulated by Ukrainian social-media channels, filmed by the camera of a Ukrainian interceptor drone. Unnamed experts in uncrewed aviation are quoted as identifying the target…
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«Здавалося, зараз сяде нам на голову»: мобільна група збила реактивну «Герань-4» із ЗУ-23-2 (ArmyInform: '"It seemed it was about to land on our heads": mobile group downs a jet Geran-4 with a ZU-23-2')
A mobile fire group of Ukraine's Lviv Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade, named after Ivan Vyhovsky, says it shot down a Russian jet-powered Geran-4 one-way attack drone that was heading for the site the group was protecting. According to ArmyInform, the target appeared at around six in the morning and dropped sharply just before reaching the group; the crew com…
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Ukraine still lacks a scalable answer to jet-powered Gerans: Brave1 says seven fast interceptor types have scored kills and over 1,000 are on order, while frontline crews and Sternenko's foundation point to speed and cost gaps
Ukrainian units on the front line describe jet-powered Gerans as largely beyond the reach of their current interceptor drones. At the command post of the 'Posipaky' battalion of the 39th Anti-Aircraft Missile Regiment on the Zaporizhzhia front, commander 'Ramses' told Ukrainska Pravda that jet drones flying at around 500 km/h are simply left alone, because…
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CSIS/Bush Institute report: about 12,000 North Korean workers assemble Shahed/Geran drones at Russia's Alabuga zone, with Pyongyang taking up to 90% of their pay
Militarnyi, citing a joint report by the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and the George W. Bush Institute ('Human Rights Abuses in Drone Production at Yelabuga', published 14 October 2026), reports that North Korea has sent about 12,000 workers to Russia to assemble Shahed-type strike drones (Geran-2) in the Alabuga Sp…
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Russia has built at least 33 air-defence positions around the Alabuga Shahed/Geran drone production zone in Tatarstan since spring 2026, satellite imagery shows
At least 33 air-defence positions have been built around the Alabuga Special Economic Zone in Tatarstan since spring 2026. Alabuga is Russia's main production site for Geran (Shahed-type) attack drones. The count comes from Radio Liberty's Russian service, which analysed satellite imagery taken on 21 October 2026; Militarnyi and Ukrainska Pravda reported it…
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Russia's Gerbera-2 decoy drone now carries a 10-kg warhead plus an incendiary bag
Russia has begun fitting its Gerbera-2 strike and reconnaissance drones with a 10-kg high-explosive fragmentation-incendiary warhead plus an additional package of incendiary mixture, carried in a separate soft plastic tank behind the main warhead, Euromaidan Press reports citing Militarnyi (18 October). The set-up appears intended to start fires at the poin…
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«Российские реактивные «Герани» начали летать ещё быстрее» (Topwar: 'Russian jet Gerans have started flying even faster')
The Russian military news portal Topwar (author Vladimir Lytkin) writes that, according to the monitoring resource AMK Mapping, Russian kamikaze drones reached speeds of about 800 km/h during strikes on western Ukraine. No specific strike date is given. The article names the jet-powered Geran-4 and Geran-5 and puts their speed at roughly 600 km/h. It adds t…
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Black Sea: US Navy P-8A Poseidon patrols off Bulgaria's coast after the drone strikes on merchant ships; Romania blames Russia and proposes a joint NATO command
A US Navy Boeing P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft has flown a low-altitude patrol off Bulgaria's Black Sea coast near the ports of Varna and Burgas, Militarnyi and Defence Blog report, citing the flight-tracking outlet ItaMilRadar (report of 19 October) and Flightradar24 data. The aircraft crossed Bulgaria from the west near Shumen, passed over the Va…
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Geran-4's on-board computer: over 75% of identified components are U.S.-made, Ukrainian engineers find
An engineer with the call sign "Prop" from the 1230th Athena Engineering and Technical Regiment of Ukraine's Support Forces dismantled the on-board computer of a Russian Geran-4 jet drone recovered from debris in Poltava region in 2026, and shared the results with Militarnyi. The aluminium unit (175 × 104 × 145 mm) is modular: a rack of boards (G102 to G110…
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Ukrainian Pilot Destroys russian Geran-4 Jet-Powered Drone (Video) (Defense Express)
According to the West Air Command of the Ukrainian Air Force, a Ukrainian tactical aviation pilot with the callsign "West" destroyed a Russian Geran-4 jet-powered attack drone in flight during a recent Russian attack on Ukraine's western direction. The command published video footage of the interception on its official Facebook page. Defense Express says th…
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Russia follows its ballistic strike with a 580-drone wave heavy on jet-powered Gerans, hitting Kirovohrad Oblast hardest and severing a unique Dnipro power-line tower in Kyiv
From 18:00 on 14 October to 08:00 on 15 October, Russia launched two Kh-59 air-launched missiles (fired from over the Black Sea) and 580 drones of various types, including Shaheds and Gerbera decoys, according to Ukraine's Air Force. The drones were launched from Oryol, Millerovo, Shatalovo, Bryansk, Kursk and Primorsko-Akhtarsk in Russia and from occupied…
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Russia fires 39 ballistic-trajectory missiles and 128 drones, 77 of them jet-powered, at Ukraine overnight on 13-14 October: three killed in Kyiv, power cut in five districts
Russia carried out a massed combined strike on Ukraine between 18:00 on 13 October and the morning of 14 October, according to the Ukrainian Air Force. It says its radio-technical troops tracked 167 air-attack assets. These were 39 missiles flying ballistic trajectories, listed as Iskander-M, KN-23, S-400, Zircon and Oniks and launched from Kursk, Bryansk,…
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«Ігла» проти реактивного дрона: на Рівненщині «Герань-4» знищили із ПЗРК (ArmyInform: Igla versus a jet drone: Geran-4 destroyed with a MANPADS in Rivne region)
On the morning of 11 October, Ukrainian air defenders in Rivne region (north-western Ukraine) destroyed a Russian jet-powered Geran-4 drone, ArmyInform reports. According to a video released by Air Command West, the drone was shot down by Junior Sergeant Vasyl Rezanovych of the command's security battalion using an Igla-1 man-portable air-defence system (MA…
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Downed Geran-4 drones carry a 32-element, likely Alabuga-made anti-jam GNSS antenna, while Geran-4 and Geran-5 also get camera-based terrain navigation
A 32-element CRPA (Controlled Radiation Pattern Antenna) has been found in a Geran-4 strike drone shot down over Ukraine, Militarnyi reports, citing an analysis by The Insider of photos and videos of wreckage; the photos, taken in September 2026, are credited to Serhii "Flash" Beskrestnov. The unit is effectively two 16-element antennas in one housing: 16 e…
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Прилёт реактивного БпЛА «Герань-4 Сикер» по турецкому танкеру AVIVA в порту Измаила (Two Majors: jet-powered Geran-4 'Siker' drone hits Turkish tanker AVIVA in the port of Izmail)
The Russian milblogger channel Two Majors (Dva Mayora) posted a single-line report, accompanied by footage, of a strike by a jet-powered Geran-4 'Siker' (Seeker) drone on the Turkish tanker AVIVA in the Danube port of Izmail, Odesa Oblast. The post gives no further details on damage, casualties or the vessel's cargo.
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Ukrainian deputy air defense commander says Russia appears to use AI to plan wave attacks on Odesa and for target recognition in Geran-4 drones
Colonel Yurii Cherevashenko, Deputy Air Force Commander for Air Defense, told Ukrinform (as relayed by Euromaidan Press and Interfax-Ukraine) that Russian forces appear to use artificial intelligence to plan air attacks and to recognize targets. He linked this to recent air raids on Odesa that came in waves with very short gaps between them. According to hi…
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Ukraine's Stavka sets new electronic warfare tasks as jet-powered Shaheds evade nearly half of air defences
After a meeting of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief's Staff (Stavka) on electronic warfare (EW) and infrastructure protection, President Zelenskyy said Kyiv had given the military and manufacturers additional tasks to scale up the most effective EW methods, Euromaidan Press reports. Because Russia keeps modifying its jet-powered Shahed/Geran drones, Ukrainian…
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Ukraine scales up counter-measures against jet-powered Shaheds: small air defence missiles due in October, a new Nika missile heading into testing, Spys interceptor test and German funding for tens of thousands of interceptor drones
During German Chancellor Friedrich Merz's visit to Kyiv on 4 October, President Zelensky said Ukraine will start using small air defence missiles against Russian jet-powered drones in the second half of October. According to Militarnyi, he said there are several types, that they are not yet in use, and that production could be scaled up quickly if the inter…
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Ukrainian strikes hit Russia's Tsymbulova drone launch base in Oryol Oblast as Russia keeps expanding it
Ukrainian drones struck the Tsymbulova drone base near Bolkhov in Russia's Oryol Oblast on the night of 30 September to 1 October. Satellite imagery published by the Ukrainian OSINT channel Absolutely Reliable Source shows six impact sites; according to the channel, two ground storage facilities, the zones used to prepare and equip UAVs and the launch site…
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"Droneports": Ukrainska Pravda and OSINT group CyberBoroshno map Russia's purpose-built Shahed/Geran launch bases, such as Tsimbulova, and explain why hardened, dispersed layouts make them so hard to destroy
In an investigation with the Ukrainian OSINT community CyberBoroshno, Ukrainska Pravda describes how Russia moved from launching Iranian-supplied Shaheds off existing military airfields (from autumn 2022, in Crimea and Bryansk and Kursk oblasts; known sites included Cape Chauda, Yeysk, Primorsko-Akhtarsk, Kursk, Seshcha and positions near Balaklava) to a ne…
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«Настала очередь мостов»: удары реактивными «Геранями-4» по Южному мосту в Киеве
The Russian milblogger channel Dva Mayora (Two Majors) reported on the morning of 1 October that another strike with jet-powered 'Geran-4' drones had hit the Southern (Pivdennyi) Bridge in Kyiv, one of the city's main transport arteries, under the heading that the bridge strikes are 'systematic after all'. According to the channel, one drone hit a support c…
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Russia upgrades the Geran-4 jet drone with a shaped-charge cutting warhead and 'whisker' contact fuze against power lines and bridges; HUR details a US-made magnetometer, 'Susanin' optical navigation and an Alabuga-built engine
According to Serhii "Flash" Beskrestnov, adviser to the Ukrainian President on defence technology, Russia on 30 September used for the first time a special shaped-charge cutting payload (KRSN) on a jet-powered strike drone, designed to destroy high-voltage transmission towers and steel bridge structures. Militarnyi, citing photos published by Defense Expres…
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Охота на подвижной состав: очередной локомотив сгорел от удара БПЛА «Герань»
Topwar reports that during massed attacks the Russian army is continuing the 'systematic destruction' of Ukraine's railway logistics, which, it says, has become the main route for military cargo from Europe and for moving supplies from the rear to the front since the blockade of sea ports. According to the article, Ukrainian Railways (Ukrzaliznytsia) has al…
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TWZ/WSJ: more than half of Ukraine’s 40-50 F-16s stuck in maintenance as Belgian phase inspections take ~40 weeks; missile shortages add to readiness crisis
The War Zone reports that Ukraine's F-16 fleet is in a readiness crisis. Of the roughly 40-50 F-16s Ukraine has received so far (out of 110 promised by Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands and Norway), more than half are reportedly stuck in maintenance limbo, and five losses have been confirmed. TWZ builds on Wall Street Journal reporting that phase inspection…
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Russian combined strike on Kyiv and Kyiv Oblast, 29-30 Sep: Zircon/Oniks, Iskander and 188 drones, energy infrastructure the main target
According to Ukraine's Air Force, Russia attacked Ukraine on the night of 29-30 September (from 18:00 on 29 September) with Zircon/Oniks anti-ship missiles launched from Kursk Oblast, Iskander-M/S-400 ballistic missiles launched from Voronezh and Bryansk oblasts, and 188 drones: Shahed (86 of them jet-powered), Gerbera attack drones and Parodiya decoy UAVs.…
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Putin says Ukraine has 'no antidote' to jet-powered Gerans as Russia fields Geran-3/4/5; 1020th AA Regiment downs a Geran-5 at 425 km/h
Speaking at the Cultural Forum, Vladimir Putin claimed Ukraine was seeking an 'air ceasefire' because it cannot cope with Russia's new jet-powered Geran drones: 'At least for now, they have no way to counter them — no antidote.' Meduza sets out the family behind the claim. The Geran-3 (first jet variant; Meduza dates it to early 2025, TWZ to early 2024) rou…
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Советник Зеленского рассказал, как ВС РФ удаётся снимать попадания беспилотников
Topwar reports on an explanation by Zelensky adviser Sergey "Flash" Beskrestov of how Russian forces filmed a drone strike on the Inkom business centre in Kyiv. He rejected speculation that satellites or reconnaissance FPV drones were used.
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В Киеве заявляют о тестировании Россией новой модификации реактивной «Герань-4»
TopWar reports a claim from Ukraine that Russia is testing a new version of its jet-powered Geran-4 one-way attack drone. The claim comes from Oleksandr Kovalenko, a military-political analyst with the Ukrainian group "Information Resistance". On his Telegram channel he described a Geran seen near Odesa on 27 September 2026 with an unusual speed profile: ab…
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MiG-29 pilot shoots down Russian jet-powered "Geran-4" over the Odesa coast with the aircraft's onboard cannon
Ukrainian outlet Censor.net published video on 27 September 2026 that it says shows a Ukrainian Air Force MiG-29 intercepting a Russian "Geran-4" off the coast of Odesa. In the footage the pilot chases the drone and then fires the fighter's onboard cannon (the MiG-29 carries a 30 mm GSh-30-1). According to the report, the Geran-4 was hit and exploded in mid…
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Ukraine Intercepts 55% of russia's Jet-Powered Shahed Drones as New Countermeasures Enter Combat
According to Defense Express, Russia launched more than 2,730 jet-powered Shahed-type drones against Ukraine in September alone. Ukrainian forces destroyed or suppressed more than 1,500 of them, an effectiveness of roughly 55%; that figure counts both drones that were physically shot down and those whose attacks were disrupted in other ways, which includes…
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Ракета или дрон: в польской прессе оценили «Герань-5»
Voennoye Obozreniye (topwar.ru) relays an assessment by the Polish outlet Defence24 of Russia's jet-powered Geran-5, asking whether it is a drone or a cruise missile. According to Defence24, the Geran-5 is not a Shahed-136/238 derivative but is based on the Iranian Karrar jet drone, powered by a commercial Chinese Telefly TF-TJ2000A turbojet, with a reporte…
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Russian drones crash and explode in Moldova and Romania through 1 October, including a Geran-4 jet drone blast beside a highway in Orhei district and a strike on a telecom mast; ISW links incursions, Polish Starlink sabotage and Berlin airport halt to one pattern
During a Russian attack on Ukraine overnight into 24 September 2026 (Ukraine's Air Force reported 282 drones plus ballistic and other missiles), drones strayed into Moldova and Romania. Moldova's Defence Ministry reported four drone incursions and partially closed its northern airspace. Near Cernița (Florești district) a drone hit a tree, fell into a field…
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RUSI Reports That Ukraine Uses PC-9 Aircraft Armed with Miniguns to Shoot Down Shahed Drones
Defense Express, citing a RUSI commentary by senior research fellow Justin Bronk, reports that a Ukrainian volunteer group operates at least one Pilatus PC-9 turboprop trainer fitted with pods carrying 7.62mm Minigun machine guns to intercept Russian one-way attack drones. According to RUSI the aircraft has shot down several jet-powered Geran-3/Geran-4 dron…
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Vluchnyk unveils Zorelit v5 interceptor drone, claims 416 km/h against jet-powered Gerans
Ukrainian company Vluchnyk (CEO Stepan Radiboh) has completed internal testing of the Zorelit v5 (also marketed as "Starship"), an interceptor drone purpose-built to down jet-powered Russian attack UAVs. Per Radiboh, the system "has completed all testing and is ready for military use"; Vluchnyk says it is open to direct contracts with military units and, on…
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Satellite imagery shows Ukrainian drone strike damaged Shahed storage bunkers at Tsymbulovo drone base
The Tsymbulovo drone base near the village of the same name in Russia's Oryol Oblast is used to store, prepare and launch Russian strike drones of the Geran family — both Iranian Shahed-derived variants and newer jet-powered types. According to Militarnyi, construction began in August 2024 and investigators believe the first launches may have taken place as…
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Russia widens strike campaign on Ukrainian industry and logistics: steel mills halted, Interpipe plant hit in Dnipro, 2.1 million m² of warehouses destroyed
Russian ballistic missile strikes in early September 2026 knocked out three of Ukraine's largest steel plants — two operated by Metinvest in the Zaporizhzhia and Dnipropetrovsk regions and one operated by ArcelorMittal — which together account for roughly 90% of Ukraine's steel output. According to Meduza's summary of Financial Times reporting, Metinvest's…
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Wild Hornets' STING S interceptor claims ~10 Geran-4 and several Geran-5 kills and heads for mass production; Geran-5 seen with internalised turbojet
According to Militarnyi, a crew (call sign 'Rubin') of the 1020th Anti-Aircraft Missile Regiment shot down a Russian Geran-5 small cruise missile around 19-20 September with a new interceptor drone, the STING S, by direct collision; the video was published by manufacturer Wild Hornets. Euromaidan Press, citing a Wild Hornets representative interviewed by NV…
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Ukraine unveils SBU jet-powered interceptor drone and reports kills on jet-powered Geran drones; Russian jet drone crashes near Chisinau
On 19 September 2026 President Zelensky announced that Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) has developed a new interceptor drone, already successfully deployed against jet-powered Shahed-type drones. According to Militarnyi, which picked up the report, the aircraft has delta-shaped wings and is launched from the ground by catapult. It would be the second publi…
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Russia and Iran deepen weapons partnership: hypersonic missile program joins Shahed/Geran drone pipeline
Defense News details how the Russia-Iran arms partnership is expanding beyond the well-known Shahed/Geran drone story. Alongside the already-documented licensed production at Alabuga (Tatarstan, $1.75 billion, finalized around October 2022) and the evolution into jet-powered Geran-4/5 variants — with a production target of thousands of additional Geran dron…
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FT: Iran Requested Delivery of Russia's Newest Jet-Powered Attack Drones
According to the British newspaper Financial Times — as relayed by the Russian state-aligned outlet topwar.ru on 13 September 2026 — Iran has asked Russia to supply its newest generation of jet-powered Geran attack drones, specifically the Geran-4 and Geran-5, reportedly for potential use in a conflict with Israel and the United States. FT attributes the cl…
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Rybar: 'Geran' drone campaign against Kyiv (20 Aug–10 Sep)
Rybar (a pro-Russian Telegram milblogger channel, not an official MoD source) claims that the 50th Separate Unmanned Systems Brigade 'Varyag' ran a systematic campaign against Kyiv and its surroundings between 20 August and 10 September 2026, using reactive/jet-powered Geran-4 'Siker' and Geran-5 drones flown along what the channel calls 'corridors 4 and 5'.
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Rybar: 'Hunter of litaky' — Geran drones used to ambush Ukrainian aircraft on the ground
The Russian milblogger Rybar argues that Geran drones (Shahed-type), specifically the "Geran-4 Seeker" variant, are no longer used only against logistics warehouses and ammunition and weapons storage, but increasingly to hunt Ukrainian aircraft. Rybar claims two airframes were hit in five days. On 4 September, on the eve of a US delegation's arrival in Mosc…
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HUR: Russia failed to substitute Western chips in the Kinzhal missile and reverted to US-made processors
According to Vladyslav Vlasiuk, the Ukrainian president's commissioner for sanctions policy, Russia's effort to substitute Western microelectronics in the Kh-47M2 Kinzhal missile with domestic chips has failed. In 2023 the Russian defence industry attempted a mass replacement of American Texas Instruments processors with locally produced equivalents, but a…
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Defense Express: how fast a cheap interceptor missile against jet drones can reach production — the Frankenburg case
Defense Express uses the Estonian defense startup Frankenburg Technologies (founded 2024, backed by roughly €40 million after a €30 million Series A in February 2026) as a case study in how quickly a cheap interceptor missile against jet-powered attack drones can go from idea to serial production. The product is the Mark I: a compact solid-fuel missile weig…
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Russian analysis: 'The Evolution of the Geran Drones — Speed versus Range'
SINGLE SOURCE — Russian state-aligned outlet (topwar.ru, author Kirill Ryabov). The piece is an analytical overview of how Russia's 'Geran' family of loitering munitions has evolved over four years of use, from slow piston-engine aircraft to fast jet-powered variants. Its central claim is an engineering trade-off: gains in speed come at the cost of range. T…
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WarGonzo cites FT: jet-powered 'Geran-4/5' drones reshape Russian air strikes
The Telegram channel WarGonzo claims that the new jet-powered drones 'Geran-4' and 'Geran-5' have noticeably changed the character of Russia's air campaign against Ukraine. The post is effectively a summary of an article the Financial Times published the same day, 13 September 2026. According to that reporting, Ukraine intercepts only about 60% of jet-power…