Photo: gettyimages
In September, Russia launched 1,339 Iranian-made Shahed kamikaze drones targeting Ukraine, though most were shot down or diverted by Ukrainian electronic warfare systems, according to the Ukrainian Defense Ministry’s ArmyInform publication, cited by EFE.
The previous record for Russia’s use of Shahed drones was in August, with nearly 800 launched, while an earlier record from 2023 saw 512 drones deployed in one month.
The Russian military uses two versions of Shahed drones: the larger Shahed-136 and the smaller Shahed-131. Early in the war, which began in 2022, Russia acquired large quantities of these drones from Iran, later supplementing them with domestically-produced versions named Geran-2 and Geran-1.
According to Oleg Katkov, editor-in-chief of Ukraine’s military publication Defense Express, Russia has already produced around 6,000 such drones at a factory in Tatarstan. ArmyInform estimates that Russia is nearing this figure after acquiring the necessary drone production technology from Iran.
Despite the mass use of Shahed drones, Ukrainian air defenses were able to neutralize about 94% of the drones in August and September, either by shooting them down or using electronic warfare to jam their signals and cause them to crash far from their intended targets.
To conserve expensive air-defense missiles, Ukraine’s military has deployed mobile patrols equipped with light weapons to target these relatively slow-moving drones. While the drones may not crash immediately, bullets often cause them to lose control and eventually crash off-course.
In response to this, the Russian military has increased the drones’ flight altitude to avoid being targeted by small arms fire. In turn, Ukraine has enhanced its electronic warfare capabilities, causing a growing number of drones to lose signal and crash far from their targets.
Despite Ukraine’s high success rate in intercepting Shahed drones, these attacks continue to pose a significant challenge, forcing the Ukrainian military to dedicate substantial resources to preventing them from reaching critical infrastructure, especially energy facilities.
When launched alongside missiles, Shahed drones serve to overwhelm Ukraine’s air defenses, making it harder to respond to all incoming threats.
Ukraine has also developed similar drones, which it uses to carry out near-daily attacks on strategic targets in Russia, such as oil refineries, fuel depots, ammunition storage, and military airfields.
