Russia’s cheap drone is no longer just a decoy. An enlarged version of the “Gerbera", built to bait Ukraine’s air defenses, can now fly up to 1,200 kilometers and carry a warhead of up to 25 kg, Defense Intelligence of Ukraine (HUR) said in a new teardown of the “Gerbera-2” published on its War&Sanctions portal, along with an interactive 3D model and a list of the drone’s parts.
Russia loads ever more capability onto airframes it once treated as throwaway, narrowing the gap with its far pricier Geran strike drones. The bigger fuel tank pushes the Gerbera’s reach past Ukraine’s borders, and one such drone, carrying a warhead, turned up on Poland’s Baltic coast in September.
From throwaway bait to a 1,200-km firestarter
The Gerbera began as a cheap decoy meant to soak up Ukraine’s air defenses, in reconnaissance and kamikaze versions, Defense Intelligence said. Over time, its insides crept toward those of the costlier Geran: anti-jam “Kometa” antennas, mesh modems, expensive gimbal-mounted cameras.
The enlarged model has a 3-meter wingspan, a 2.6-meter fuselage, and a new 63-liter fuel tank, split into sections to keep the drone steady in maneuvers, giving it a range of up to 1,200 km. Its two-cylinder, two-stroke engine is effectively half of a Geran-2 engine, which the agency says is produced at Russia’s Alabuga plant.
The drone examined by HUR carried a 10-kg high-explosive fragmentation-incendiary warhead plus separate bags of incendiary mixture, though Russia claims the type can lift a warhead of up to 25 kg.
A drone built mostly from Chinese and American parts
Its electronics, HUR said, include an updated flight controller, a 12-channel “Kometa” antenna, a mesh modem made by China’s Shenzhen Sinosun Technology, and a new video-processing unit nicknamed “Sosiska” (Sausage), built on a Chinese Coke Pi microcomputer.
The sample had a dual IP camera mounted above the fuel tank to spot interceptors, and the agency said it has also found versions with forward-facing cameras and three-axis gimbals. Of all the parts, the largest shares come from Chinese - 8 and American - 4 manufacturers.
Why its range now reaches past Ukraine
The bigger fuel tank is what the investigators flag as the most significant: the extended range means the Gerbera-2 could be used beyond Ukrainian territory. In mid-September, Defense Intelligence noted, a Gerbera-2 carrying a warhead was found on Poland’s Baltic coast, one of several Russian drones to drift or stray toward NATO shores.
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