Ukrainian Air Force Data Suggests Occasional And Small-Scale Russian Employment of Turbojet-Powered Shahed-136/Geran-2 Derivatives

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Note: The following text was originally posted on my X/Twitter account.

While unofficial reports suggest that Russia has been employing one or more turbojet-powered versions/derivatives of its ordinarily propeller-driven Shahed-136/Geran-2/Garpiya strike drones—at least some of which bear the designation Geran-3 on their wing stabilizers—against Ukraine on a regular basis and in increasing numbers in recent months, the Ukrainian Air Force's daily disclosures have only explicitly mentioned the use of "high-speed jet drones" on 2 August (4 launched, 3 of which were reportedly intercepted) and 8 August (8 launched, 8 of which were reportedly intercepted). The Ukrainian military will likely have to revise how it classifies Russian strike munitions, given the peculiar nature of a turbojet-powered version/derivative of the Shahed-136/Geran-2/Garpiya, which can be characterized as either a single-use turbojet-powered cropped delta wing fixed-wing strike drone or a (single-use) turbojet-powered cropped delta wing cruise missile. It is possible that the turbojet-powered version(s)/derivative(s) of the Shahed-136/Geran-2/Garpiya is being aggregated alongside the far more widespread propeller-driven version thereof in the Ukrainian Air Force's daily disclosure. Note that the daily disclosures tend to clearly differentiate between different Russian turbojet/turbofan-powered land-attack cruise missiles (Kh-101, 9M729 Kalibr, etc.).