Molniya-2
Extremely low-altitude threat, easily confused with FPV/COTS
A twin-engine, wood/plastic loitering munition from Atlant Aero (Taganrog) that operates at very low altitude and carries specialised anti-personnel and anti-vehicle payloads.
Learn more in the Drone Academy →Dimensionsfor imagery analysis
- Drone (L × span)
- Span 1.5 m; length not found
- Max. take-off weight
- 10 kg
- Dimension source
- US Army TRADOC Worldwide Equipment Guide (ODIN)
Key data
- Altitude
- ~300–400 m (~1,000–1,300 ft)
- Speed
- ~120 km/h
- Range
- up to ~60 km (Beskrestnov, Sep 2026: up to ~50 km)
- Weight
- ~10 kg MTOW
- Cost
- ~$1,600 each, warhead up to ~10 kg (Serhii Beskrestnov, via Kyiv Independent, 25 Sep 2026)
Relevance
- Payload
- Up to 24 anti-personnel mines + 60 spikes (anti-vehicle), in two releasable compartments
- Confusion risk
- Low altitude and small size resemble FPV/COTS — look for the distinctive twin propeller
- New role — flying repeater
- Since early 2026 Russia has also used a modified Molniya-2P as a pure signal relay (mesh modem + camera + onboard computer, no payload): the aircraft passes the control signal of a more distant attack drone on to the ground station, allowing control chains to reach ~150–175 km deep into Ukrainian territory. Source: RU Mil Tracker e-20260905-03 (Militarnyi/KI Insights, Sep 2026) — hardware-based assessment by a single analysis centre, not independently confirmed
- Video link shifting to digital
- The Molniya video link is moving from analogue to digital (reported ~4.1–4.5 GHz), alongside an autonomous, AI-guided variant without a radio link. Consequence: cheap portable analogue drone detectors — on which Ukrainian early warning largely relies — are blinded by this; detection must then rely on the presence and bearing of the digital transmission. Source: RU Mil Tracker e-20260910-11 (euromaidanpress via EW monitor 'Flash'/Beskrestnov, Sep 2026) — a single analyst's claim, not independently confirmed
- Use outside Ukraine (Sep 2026)
- Russia's Africa Corps (Wagner's successor in the Sahel) used a Molniya kamikaze drone against fighters of the al-Qaeda-linked JNIM near Dioura (Mopti region, Mali); the aircraft came down near the JNIM positions. First reported use of this Ukraine-war type in Africa — the front-line lessons are being exported. Identified as a Molniya by Militarnyi from its shape; the claim that it was shot down rests solely on the monitoring account Alerte Sahel. Source: Euromaidan Press, 22 Sep 2026, RU Mil Tracker e-20260923-03
- Supply chain (Sep 2026)
- Manufacturer Atlant Aero (Taganrog) is sanctioned by the EU and Canada but not the US/UK; parent company Prominvest and the owners are not sanctioned anywhere. Research by the Center for Defense Reforms also names 10 Russian and 11 Chinese unsanctioned suppliers, including Shenzhen Xingkai Technology (mesh-network equipment for deep flights). Satellite imagery shows the Taganrog plant expanded rapidly in 2025. Source: Kyiv Independent, 25 Sep 2026, RU Mil Tracker e-20260926-02 — a single advocacy think-tank report, not independently verified
- New variant: Molniya-13 (Oct 2026)
- Larger reconnaissance version: about 1.5 times the size of the standard Molniya, four motors, offered for reconnaissance, monitoring and search-and-rescue. First shown publicly in Russia in June 2026; shot down over Ukraine in early October 2026 by the 8th Air Assault Corps. Payload and range unknown. Ukrainian claim, not independently confirmed — source: Defense Express / United24 Media, RU Mil Tracker e-20261008-s04
News archive 21
Analysed reports from the RU Mil Tracker about this system, newest first. Archive since 2026-07-17.
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«Крылатая ракета «Филин». Недорогое средство большой дальности» (Topwar: 'The Filin cruise missile: an inexpensive long-range weapon')
Topwar author Kirill Ryabov discusses the 'Filin' (Eagle-Owl), a new long-range ground-launched cruise missile. He relies almost entirely on material that Ukraine's military intelligence (HUR) published on its War&Sanctions portal on 22 October: debris photos, a 3D model, a component list and estimated specifications. HUR says Russia has used the missile si…
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«New russian Filin Missile Consists Half of American, Chinese Components: Ukraine's Defense Intelligence Reveals Details» (Defense Express)
Defense Express reviews the component analysis of Russia's new Filin cruise missile that Ukraine's Defence Intelligence (HUR) published on its War&Sanctions portal, including a 3D model, an assembly breakdown and a list of electronic parts. The outlet stresses HUR's finding that the missile's electronics resemble those of other Russian missiles and UAVs, wi…
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Ukraine's HUR unveils Filin, a new low-cost Russian ground-launched cruise missile with up to 1,200 km range, built with 35 US and 22 Chinese components and a Russian R500 turbojet
On 22 October 2026 Ukraine's military intelligence agency HUR published an interactive 3D model, an assembly breakdown and an electronic-component database of a new Russian cruise missile, the Filin ("eagle owl"), on its War&Sanctions portal. According to HUR, Russia began firing the missile at Ukraine in late summer 2026. It is developed by AO NPO Molniya,…
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Ukraine's 155th Mechanized Brigade says it repelled the largest Russian motorcycle assault of the year near Pokrovsk
Ukraine's 155th Separate Mechanized Brigade says it repelled, together with neighbouring units, the largest Russian motorcycle assault in its area of responsibility near Pokrovsk (Donetsk region) since the start of the year, Militarnyi reported on 17 October 2026, citing the brigade's press service. According to the brigade, Russian troops tried to reach Uk…
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Russian drone and Banderol waves of 15–16 October push west to Rivne and Volyn on NATO border; jet-powered Gerans dominate night strike
According to Ukraine's Air Force, Russia launched 149 strike drones on the night of 15–16 October, 108 of them jet-powered Shahed types, alongside Gerbera drones and Parodiya decoys, from Oryol, occupied Donetsk Oblast and Hvardiiske in occupied Crimea. Air defence shot down or jammed 114 (77 of the jet-powered ones). Twenty-seven aerial assets struck 24 lo…
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The Insider investigation: China's Shenzhen Xingkai Technology supplies mesh modems for Russian Geran and Gerbera drones
Militarnyi, citing an investigation by The Insider, reports that the Chinese firm Shenzhen Xingkai Technology supplies mesh modems used in Russian Geran and Gerbera long-range drones. According to the journalists, the equipment reached Russia via the companies Atlant-Engineering and LT Global Forwarding and was declared at customs as antennas and remote-con…
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«1307 «Молній» за тиждень: на Півдні знищили понад півтори тисячі російських дронів» (ArmyInform: 1,307 Molniyas in a week – over 1,500 Russian drones destroyed in the South)
Ukrainian state outlet ArmyInform, citing the weekly results of Ukraine's Southern Defence Forces, reports that 1,528 Russian unmanned aerial vehicles were destroyed in the southern sector in one week. The large majority, 1,307, were Molniya drones. The rest were 116 Shahed-type long-range strike drones, 75 reconnaissance UAVs and 30 Lancet loitering muniti…
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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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Ukraine says an intercepted Russian document plans up to 1,000 missiles, drones and bombs against 60 Ukrainian infrastructure targets this winter
Ukraine says it has obtained a Russian plan for a winter strike campaign against its critical infrastructure. Euromaidan Press, citing The New York Times (2 October) and RFE/RL's Schemes project (8 October), reports that the Russian-language document is dated August and lists 60 key targets to be hit with up to 1,000 weapons. These reportedly include up to…
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Ukrainian Forces Shoot Down Newly Developed russian Molniya-13 UAV (Video) (Defense Express)
Defense Express reports that Ukrainian forces have shot down a newly developed Russian Molniya-13 unmanned aerial vehicle and published video of the downed aircraft. According to Ukraine's 8th Air Assault Corps, which released the footage on 5 October 2026, this is a recent Russian development that was first presented publicly in Russia in June 2026, so its…
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«Каракурт» бьёт врага наверняка (Krasnaya Zvezda: "Karakurt hits the enemy for certain")
Krasnaya Zvezda, the Russian Ministry of Defence newspaper, profiles a strike-UAV crew of the 375th Separate Anti-Tank Artillery Battalion (1st Guards Tank Army, "Zapad" group of forces) operating the "Molniya" strike drone on the Kupiansk axis. "Karakurt" is not a weapon system here but the callsign of the crew commander, a man in his early thirties from t…
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«Про це знає їхнє вище командування»: що стоїть за тактикою інфільтрації росіян між позиціями
ArmyInform reports remarks by Ruslana Bohdan, communications officer of Ukraine's 57th Separate Motorised Infantry Brigade (named after Kost Hordiienko), made on Army TV about the South-Slobozhanskyi (south Kharkiv) direction. According to Bohdan, Russian troops keep trying to slip through the gaps between Ukrainian positions. She stresses that these are no…
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«Усі їхні тактики вже вивчені»: у 115-й бригаді розповіли про полювання на ворожі БПЛА
ArmyInform relays an interview given to Suspilne by Chief Sergeant "Hector" of a drone-interception battery in Ukraine's 115th Brigade. The unit counters Russian reconnaissance drones (Zala, Orlan, Supercam) and attack drones (Shaheds, Gerbers, Molniya).
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Ukraine's General Staff: Strike drone launch site hit in occupied Donetsk
According to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Ukrainian defence forces on 26 September and during the night of 26–27 September struck a facility in the occupied city of Donetsk that Russian forces used to store, prepare and launch strike UAVs. The General Staff did not say which drone type was launched from the site (for example Shahed/Gera…
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Most firms in Russia's Molniya drone supply chain are unsanctioned, Ukrainian research finds
Research by the Ukrainian think tank Center for Defense Reforms, shared exclusively with the Kyiv Independent (25 September 2026), finds that most companies involved in producing Russia's Molniya strike drones are not under Western sanctions. The Molniya is made by Atlant Aero LLC; according to Serhii Beskrestnov, a former adviser to Ukraine's Defence Minis…
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Russia adapts to Ukraine's middle-strike drone campaign with mobile fire groups, Rubicon interceptors and Starlink jammers
According to a Kyiv Independent field report from the southern front, Russian forces have adapted to Ukraine's expanded "middle strike" campaign. That campaign uses drones against targets from roughly 35 km (the end of FPV range) out to about 300 km behind the line. Within weeks of the campaign being scaled up in the south, Russia changed logistics routes a…
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Africa Corps fielded a Ukraine-war Molniya kamikaze drone in Mali; it came down near JNIM fighters
Russia's Africa Corps, the Defence Ministry-run successor to Wagner in the Sahel, used a Molniya kamikaze drone against fighters of the al-Qaeda-linked JNIM near Dioura in Mali's Mopti region, Euromaidan Press reports. According to the monitoring account Alerte Sahel, Africa Corps troops launched the drone at JNIM positions while breaking out of a siege, an…
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Ukraine's 3rd Army Corps says its air defence forced Russian Rubicon unit to relocate
According to Militarnyi, the air-defence commander of Ukraine's 3rd Army Corps says the Russian unmanned-systems unit Rubicon has been 'almost entirely' redeployed to another front sector because its reconnaissance and strike drones ceased to be effective. Russia had sent additional reconnaissance and strike drone crews to the area, and Ukrainian intelligen…
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Neptune Missile Strike Destroys Production Buildings at Russia's Atlant Aero Drone Plant in Taganrog
Ukrainian Neptune cruise missiles inflicted heavy damage on Atlant Aero, a Russian unmanned aerial vehicle production facility in Taganrog (Rostov Oblast), in mid-September 2026. According to multiple outlets — Militarnyi, Ukrainska Pravda and United24 Media, all drawing on satellite-imagery analysis by the OSINT group Exilenova+ — three production building…
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Ukrainian EW monitor 'Flash' warns Russia is moving Molniya strike drones to digital video, blinding analog detectors
According to Ukrainian EW monitor Serhii "Flash" Beskrestnov (President Zelenskyy's defense-technology adviser), Russia is increasingly fitting its cheap Molniya strike drones with digital video transmission in place of analog. Once that transition is complete, the portable detectors Ukraine currently relies on for early warning will stop working, because t…
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«Рубікон», «Ланцети» і рої FPV: як росіяни штурмують Покровський напрямок
Sergeant Oleksiy Hodzenko, spokesman for the "Korsar" unmanned systems battalion of Ukraine's 38th Separate Marine Infantry Brigade (named after Hetman Petro Sahaidachny), described fighting in the Pokrovsk direction in a broadcast on Army TV on 29 July 2026. He said Russian forces continue attacking with small infantry groups that try to infiltrate Ukraini…