Ukrainian forensics expert Oleksandr Vysikan said on Thursday that Russia is upgrading Iranian suicide drones with more advanced technology to slip them past Ukrainian air defenses and deliver more powerful explosives.
Oleksandr told Radio Free Europe (RFE) the Russians “now use a more powerful warhead” in their Iranian-designed Shahed drones, along with satellite guidance systems that are more difficult for Ukrainian forces to jam, plus a backup system in case the primary guidance electronics get scrambled.
“We see that they have changed the design and some electronics because of the different warhead,” he said, displaying components salvaged from the wreckage of Russian drones.
“The internal electronics are the biggest difference between the versions of this drone. They have completely changed,” he said.
Other observers have noted Russia’s drones became significantly more difficult for Ukraine to intercept this year. The formerly simplistic, but reliable, Iranian drone platform has been upgraded with artificial intelligence (AI) targeting, thermal imaging sensors, armored engine compartments, and a host of defenses against Ukrainian electronic warfare.
Russia is not supposed to have those advanced electronics, but it has found ways to work around sanctions to get what it needs. Customs officials in Finland are currently investigating a company that allegedly exported over $3 million in banned electronics components to Russia in 2022 and 2023, including parts that were “directly suitable for use by the Russian defense industry and could help the Putin administration’s war efforts in Ukraine.”
The scheme allegedly involved the Finnish company buying components from the U.S., European Union (EU), China, and other sources, then processing falsified sales to customers that were supposedly located in the EU and Hong Kong, while the goods were actually “illegally exported to Russia.”
One of the suspects in the case is a dual Finnish-Russian citizen whose son is “believed to be an officer in the Russian military,” according to Finnish customs officials.
The U.S. Treasury Department has sanctioned hundreds of “third-country” entities and individuals for participating in similar schemes to supply Russia with “advanced technology and equipment that it desperately needs to support its war machine.”
The Ukrainian military is responding by modifying its own drones to perform interception missions. Ukrainian pilots are also becoming more adept at destroying Russian drones with air-to-air missiles, but the increased damage from Russia’s recent airstrikes suggests the balance of the air war has shifted in Russia’s favor.
Ukraine’s armed forces said Russia launched 52 Shahed drones, plus decoys, in a massive strike against seven different locations on Wednesday night. Ukraine claimed it was able to intercept 40 of the kamikaze drones. When Russia launched 61 drones in a single night in January, Ukraine was able to bring all of them down.
Russia began acquiring large numbers of Shahed drones from Iran in 2022 after Ukraine’s defenders showed a significant early advantage in drone warfare.
The Shahed series of loitering munition platforms — smart bombs that can hover for an extended interval until it locates and attacks its target — was developed by Iran to counter with sheer numbers the more sophisticated unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) deployed by Western forces. Shahed drones are much cheaper than other one-way attack (OWA) vehicles, let alone sophisticated robot planes that can return home to be refueled and rearmed. Some military analysts began describing the Shahed as the “poor man’s cruise missile” because they can be built for as little as $20,000 per drone.
Russia did not want to admit it was importing large numbers of drones from Iran to make up for its deficiencies in UAV warfare, so Moscow laughably claimed Russian designers just happened to develop an identical drone called “Geran.” Observers in Ukraine noted the Russians did not bother to remove the Iranian markings from their early waves of “Geran” attack drones.
The Ukrainians soon discovered that Russia was upgrading its Iranian drones with better electronics and more powerful explosive payloads and, before long, Russia opened factories to domestically produce large numbers of the upgraded Iranian-designed weaponry, controversially staffed with cheap labor the Russians imported from Africa.
Russia’s main plant for producing Shahed drones, located in the Alabuga special economic zone of Tartarstan, was expanded in May 2024 to manufacture at least 6,000 drones per year. Hackers uncovered documents that showed Russia paying Iran roughly $1.75 billion for drones, much of the price paid in gold. Ukrainian officials said part of the deal included Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) officers training Russian drone operators with assistance from Iran’s terrorist proxy in Lebanon, Hezbollah.
Ukraine used its own drones to attack a different Russian drone factory on Tuesday. The target, located in Izhevsk, was over 800 miles from Ukrainian territory, and only 620 miles east of Moscow. Local officials said the drone attack injured several people and started a fire, causing the Kupol Electromechanical Plant to be evacuated.
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