Russia built a quicker Shahed because Ukraine was good at shooting down the old one, and the new version has weaknesses of its own. The jet-powered Geran-3 outpaces its predecessor but is easier to detect on radar and vulnerable to shoulder-fired missiles, Colonel Artem Skurativskyi of the 7th Rapid Response Corps' air-defense directorate said in an interview with ArmyInform.
Ukraine's combined air defenses raised the interception rate of Geran-2 and Shahed-136 drones to between 80 and 93%, depending on the scale of the attack, and that success is what pushed Russia to develop the jet version.
The jet Shahed outruns the defenses
Speed is the jet model's main advantage.
"Unlike its predecessor with piston engines, the jet modification has a higher flight speed, which significantly complicates air defense's task of destroying them, and also lets them cover large distances much faster," Skurativskyi explained.
The numbers are stark. The Geran-3 can fly from the Belarusian border to Kyiv in 35 minutes, four times faster than the previous version, and its optical-electronic camera module lets an operator guide the loitering munition online, the colonel noted.
Its size and heat are the Achilles' heel
The jet drone's advantages come with real weaknesses. Its large size, a body 3.5 meters long with a 3-meter wingspan, lets radar systems detect it easily over Ukraine, the colonel noted, and its engine gives it away in the thermal band.
That "powerful radiation in the thermal range makes them vulnerable to MANPADS," he added, so the same jet engine that gives the drone its speed also makes it a bright heat target for shoulder-fired missiles.
Russia uses it sparingly, for now
Still, the jet Shahed is not replacing the old one yet. Jet Geran-3 drones make up to 20% of the Shaheds Russia launches, with most strikes still using the Geran-2, the colonel said, though he pointed out that the rising share "indicates a scaling-up of production capacity." Russia sends the jet version against critical infrastructure, energy, and military targets in eastern, southern, and central Ukraine, both hunting targets with the camera module and folding them into massed strikes to overload air defenses.
Ukraine is still adapting.
"Mobile fire groups, which performed excellently in downing Shaheds, are of little effect against the jet modifications because of their high speed," Skurativskyi said.
Even so, he confirmed, troops of the 81st Air Assault Brigade are already downing jet Shaheds with interceptors.
