Russia has been reducing its usage of conventional long-range attack drones in favor of more advanced, jet-powered ones, the spokesperson for Ukraine’s navy said on Monday.
“The Russians are reducing the number of conventional drones they use while effectively increasing the number of jet-powered drones,” said Capt. 3rd Rank Dmytro Pletenchuk, in an interview with Ukrainian state TV outlet Ukrinform.
“In other words, the Russians are now betting primarily on those,” he added. “At the same time, many different elements of Ukraine’s defense and security forces are involved in countering them. The air force is constantly operating in the south, and that’s noticeable even from the sea.”
Many of the Kremlin’s Shahed drones, which follow the design of Iranian attack drones but are manufactured in Russia, are launched from its southern territories and occupied Crimea.
Their typical flight path into Ukraine runs over the Black Sea, where the Ukrainian navy defends the region and its ports.
Jet-powered drones fly much faster than the Geran-1 and Geran-2, which are Russia’s versions of the propeller-driven Shahed.
Moscow’s jet-powered Shaheds, dubbed the Geran-3 and Geran-4, have been appearing in its air attacks since the summer of last year. The more advanced Geran-5, a version of Iran’s Karrar drone said to fly at speeds of up to 373 miles per hour, made its combat debut in January.
In June, Ukraine’s then-commander in chief, Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, said that Russia plans to eventually have 50% of its long-range attack drone waves consist of jet-powered systems.
The higher speeds have posed a challenge for Ukraine to counter with interceptor drones, first-person-view quadcopters that became its cheap answer to the Shahed.
Ukrainian interceptor drones have typically flown as fast as around 175 miles per hour, making them too slow to catch more advanced Russian drones. However, some manufacturers say they’ve been able to improve their interceptors to reach about 230 miles per hour, which is about the top speed of a Geran-3.
Pletenchuk said on Monday that the greatest hurdle Ukraine faces now is countering Russia’s ballistic missiles.
“The main challenge, of course, remains ballistic missiles,” he said. “It’s no secret.”
Kyiv has said it has been desperately lacking advanced interceptor missiles, most notably Patriot missiles, to neutralize these high-priority threats.
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