Russia’s new jet drones are better at evading Ukrainian air defenses, but experts say Moscow’s drone program is ‘critically dependent’ on Chinese components

Filed 2h ago · Via Meduza · The Buffoon Desk

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Kevin MacLeod · incompetech.com · CC BY 4.0

Photo: European Parliament · CC BY 4.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

Russia has scaled up production of jet-powered Geran drones and Banderol cruise missiles that fly faster and evade interception far better than earlier models, according to the Wall Street Journal and Financial Times. The new Geran-5 reaches 600 kilometers per hour, up from 185 for its piston-engine predecessor, and Ukraine's Air Force says Russia launched 2,800 such drones in August alone.

Ukrainian analysts examining wreckage, along with the firm DroneSec, say Russia's drone program is 'critically dependent' on Chinese-sourced components including engines and electronics, most of them commercially available dual-use parts. Reports also indicate Iran has requested the newer Gerans from Moscow for its own conflicts.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.

✒ FROM THE EDITORIAL DESK

A country that supposedly isn't supplying a war keeps showing up in the wreckage of that war's weapons. Sanctions regimes work about as well as a fence with the gate left open, and everybody involved knows exactly which gate. The upgrade cycle described here took a couple of years; the diplomatic language to address it will likely take longer.

Source: Read the original at Meduza → Scored: Sergio's Magic Dustbin · Kevin MacLeod · CC BY 4.0

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