The drone battle to take down Russia’s latest Gerans looks to be moving at speeds faster than Formula 1 cars or bullet trains.
The latest Ukrainian report to highlight such extreme speeds came from the Serhiy Prytula Charity Foundation, a volunteer organization that supplies Ukraine’s military, on Monday.
The foundation posted thermal footage shot from a drone approaching another uncrewed system above the clouds. The shape of the target closely resembles the Geran-5, a Russian one-way attack drone that resembles and shares many characteristics with cruise missiles.
The camera closes the distance on the Geran-5, almost reaching it before the footage cuts off — a typical indicator of a successful or near-successful interception.
“The drone was destroyed while flying at 425 kmph, at an altitude of more than 3 km,” the foundation wrote. That’s about 264 mph, fast enough to cross the length of a football field in less than a second.
The foundation said the footage was filmed by a crew from Ukraine’s 1020th Anti-Aircraft Missile and Artillery Regiment, which is based in the central Ukrainian region of Poltava.
The unit had used a new interceptor drone that was “designed specifically” for jet-powered drones, it added.
Ukrainian intelligence has said that the Geran-5, described as a Russian version of the Iranian Karrar drone, can reach a top speed of 373 mph, making it the fastest among its one-way attack drones.
Though the reported interception was much slower at 264 mph, the speed is a new combat achievement for Ukrainian interceptor drones, which are designed to be cheaper and mass-producible.
The fastest speed ever clocked by a Formula 1 car, for example, was 246.9 mph in a land-speed record attempt by a modified Honda F1 car. The reported interception was also faster than Japan’s world-famous bullet train, the Shinkansen, which reaches speeds of 200 mph.
Ukrainian officials reported similar speed achievements late last year, though these weren’t recorded in combat.
In December, Mykhailo Fedorov, who was Ukraine’s digital transformation minister at the time, said an interceptor drone had reached a speed of 400 kmph, or about 248 mph, with a special motor.
Ukrainian interceptor drones, which rose to prominence as a counter to the Russian Shahed in late 2024, have typically been propeller-driven quadcopters shaped like bullets.
But recent designs emerging to battle turbojet Shaheds and attack drones have begun to feature jet engines, too. It’s unclear which type was used in the interception reported on Monday.
Ukraine’s defense ministry said that it has been field-testing at least four types of interceptor drones, including a winged drone that’s launched via catapult.
The Wild Hornets, a major interceptor manufacturer, has also been releasing footage of its newest interceptor, the Sting-S, chasing down jet-powered drones. Last week, the firm told Business Insider that the Sting-S is a modified quadcopter-type interceptor.
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