Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
At the moment Ukraine is rapidly losing the advantage it had previously gained over Russia in the development of strike drones. This lag is not yet catastrophic and can be made up, but it is obvious and continues to grow rapidly month by month. A simple analogy: a wooden, slow biplane from World War I and the Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter with a piston engine from World War II.
In April of 2026 Russia attacked with jet drones (JDs) in the Kyiv region the house of the then-adviser to the Ukrainian Minister of Defense, Serhiy Beskrestnov (Flesh). Later Flesh stated that the drone was controlled from Russian territory with the aim of his direct elimination. In early 2026 the possibility of the mass appearance of such drones on the enemy’s side in Ukraine was clearly underestimated.
The launch dynamics of the jet drones “Geran-5” / “Banderol” over recent months look like this:
June – 350;
July – 1500;
August – over 2800.
Perhaps the total number is not very impressive, since in May Russia launched more than 8 thousand conventional drones at Ukraine. But there is a difference in altitude (5–7 km, sometimes up to 10 km) and speed (600 km/h) of JD flight. In speed terms it is something between a conventional Shahed (200 km/h) and a cruise missile (800 km/h), and in cost—it is not a very expensive pleasure (by various estimates, $100k for 1 units).
It is believed that the main factor in such rapid JD development is the steady supply to Russia of extremely cheap jet engines from China at a price of $40k. And at this pace Ukraine is currently struggling to cope; about 60% of targets are being shot down (95% of ordinary “Gerans”). Overall, a solution exists and it will be implemented by November.
Our JDs appear in Russian airspace extremely rarely precisely because of the extraordinary cost and lack of engine deliveries from partners. If Russia manages to scale up and further cheapen this technology, there should be no doubt that Russia will share these products with the rest of the planet’s ragged countries—Iran, North Korea, and other junk such as the Yemeni Houthis.
Photo: Ivan Stupak / Facebook
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