Russia’s new high-speed attack drones are increasingly appearing on the battlefield, but Ukrainians said they’ve already destroyed some with cheap interceptors.
Serhii Sternenko, the leader of a volunteer organization specializing in donating drones to Ukrainian units, said on Sunday that the Sting — a locally built interceptor drone — successfully destroyed several jet-powered attack drones.
“A bit of a historic achievement,” wrote Sternenko in his Telegram channel. He published a photo that appears to show the back of a jet-powered Geran-3 in the sky, indicating that the footage was captured by an aircraft fast enough to catch the Russian drone.
The announcement is another sign of how Ukraine is finding ways to fight the growing threat of jet-powered strikes, amid concerns that Russia’s new drones are too fast to be reliably destroyed through inexpensive means.
On Sunday, Ukraine’s General Staff said in a description of a monthly briefing for officials that Russia had already deployed 138 of the new uncrewed aerial systems.
This turbojet drone is the Geran-3, Russia’s domestic version of the Iranian Shahed-238 long-range loitering munition. With an estimated top speed of 230 mph, the Geran-3 flies much more swiftly than its propeller-driven predecessor, which the Kremlin has been using to hammer Ukraine in large waves over the past year.
The Geran-2, modeled after the Shahed-136, flies at around 115 mph and is now the foundation of Moscow’s bombardment strategy.
Russia regularly accumulates these mass-produced drones to send in large waves over the border, pairing them with hundreds of decoys to overwhelm Ukrainian air defenses. Kyiv officials have said Geran-2s can cost as little as $20,000 each.
A challenge for new interceptors
In response, Ukrainians are developing interceptor drones, or small first-person-view drones modified to fly at high speeds, as a low-cost way of countering the Geran-2. Each one typically costs between $2,000 and $6,000, and they’re now considered a crucial part of Ukraine’s air defense system, working in tandem with machine gun crews and a range of other interceptors.
The Sting, the interceptor mentioned by Sternenko, is one such drone that is frequently deployed. It was developed by the Ukrainian company Wild Hornets to fly at roughly 215 mph with four rotors.
Sporadic appearances of the Geran-3 over the last year, however, sparked fears that these interceptor drones would be too slow to catch waves of jet-powered Shaheds.
If that becomes the case, the war would resurface Ukraine’s key struggle in defending against such large-scale air attacks: cost. The country is already strapped for resources and cannot afford to use traditional expensive missiles to take down cheap Russian drones.
The General Staff’s latest briefing said Ukraine had destroyed most of the 138 Geran-3s used by Russia lately, but it’s unclear through what means.
Senior Ukrainian officials told Business Insider’s Jake Epstein last month that Russia is experimenting with the Geran-3 to test and probe Ukraine’s defenses.
But they also said that Moscow has deployed the new drones in limited numbers. That would indicate that Russia has yet to move into mass production on the scale it has reached with the Geran-2.
The Geran-3 is significantly more advanced than the Geran-2, of which Russia produces thousands each month, with newer features such as a satellite navigation system that enhances resistance to electronic warfare.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian drone developers previously told Business Insider that they’ve been preparing for the possibility of the Geran-3 taking over the skies.
The deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential office, Pavlo Palisa, said in September that Kyiv had already developed drones “capable of fighting the Shaheds with jet engines.” However, he did not disclose details about these new interceptors.
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