The Geran-3 made its combat debut last year. On Monday, Ukraine’s military intelligence agency, the GUR, said Russia had started using the newer Geran-4 in attacks this month “as a countermeasure against the effectiveness of our interceptor” drones.<\/p>\n
Cheap interceptor drones<\/a> are a critical tool in Ukraine’s air defense arsenal as it faces worsening Russian bombardments<\/a>.<\/p>\n Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s defense minister, recently told reporters that the number of Geran-type drones downed by interceptor drones has doubled since the start of the year, while deliveries to the military have increased at the same time.<\/p>\n The interceptor drones are armed with small warheads and eliminate their targets by colliding with them or exploding nearby. But they are primarily designed to engage the Geran-2, which can reach speeds of 115 mph, not the faster variants.<\/p>\n The Geran-4 is powered by a Chinese-made turbojet engine<\/a> and can fly as fast as 500 km\/h (roughly 310 mph) and cruise at an altitude of 5,000 meters (1,640 feet), the GUR said. The drone can carry a highly explosive warhead over a distance of 450 kilometers (280 miles).<\/p>\n Jet-powered drones are launched by long rails<\/a> and accelerate to flight speed before the engine takes over. The GUR said the Geran-4 has an improved airframe, a more reinforced structure, and an engine that provides greater thrust than its predecessor variants. The design allows for active maneuvering.<\/p>\n A rendering of the Geran-4.\u00a0<\/p>\n Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine\/Screengrab<\/p>\n Neither Russia’s defense ministry nor its US embassy responded to requests for comment on the GUR assessment.<\/p>\n Russia’s jet-powered drones have not been used as widely in combat as the propeller-driven Geran-2, although Moscow has expanded the infrastructure<\/a> to support their launches at various air bases.<\/p>\n Serhii “Flash” Beskrestnov, an advisor to Ukraine’s defense ministry, said Russia used both the Geran-3 and Geran-4 to attack Kyiv during a massive bombardment over the weekend that killed at least two people and injured dozens more.<\/p>\n Ukraine has signaled that it is preparing for an uptick in Russian jet-powered drones. For instance, interceptor drone makers<\/a> have said they are developing faster models to chase down the newer Gerans.<\/p>\n Fedorov, the defense minister, told reporters that Ukraine is focused on developing a stockpile of low-cost interceptor missiles<\/a> “to prepare for the emergence of jet-powered” drones, and that Kyiv has already begun testing.<\/p>\n Ukraine aims to scale production and build out a stockpile before the fall, Fedorov said, as Russia typically ramps up missile and drone strikes<\/a> during the colder months.<\/p>\n The rise of interceptor drones, followed by the debut of jet-powered Gerans, and Ukraine’s development of cheap missiles in response to that, follows a similar trend throughout the conflict, where one side fields a new technology that forces the other to adapt and counter<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n