Illia Ponomarenko

Shahed-136 Drones Evolve Into More Lethal, Adaptive Weapons

By the way, speaking of Shahed-136s. Back in 2022-2023, when Iran first supplied them to Russia and they were first used on a large scale against Ukraine, they were fairly simple loitering munitions -- a slow, buzzing two-stroke engine whining high in the sky like a moped, a 50-kg warhead, and often they could be shot down by machine guns mounted on pickup trucks. Now, after several years of massive use, Russia has dramatically upgraded them. And they evolve all the time along with our defenses. They can now carry almost twice the warhead -- sometimes even thermobaric. Experimental versions used jet propulsion. They can fly high and then suddenly dive onto their targets, making them much harder to intercept. They can also fly extremely low, skimming just above the treetops. They’re painted black to make nighttime detection even harder. Now they can carry cellular modems or Starlink terminals to transmit telemetry and video to operators and allow remote control. Some are equipped with infrared cameras and target-recognition systems. They can act as communication relays for other drones. There are also simple decoy drones designed purely to overload your air defenses. And here in Ukraine we’ve even seen Shaheds carrying MANPADS, air-to-air missiles, and even another remotely controlled FPV drone. And most importantly -- they are cheap, mass-produced, and there are a lot of them. Dozens or hundreds every night against your targets, together with swarms of decoys. In other words -- welcome to the party, pal. For four years, we Ukrainians have been begging on our knees for weapons, warning that endless appeasement and “escalation management" that give Russia and its totalitarian allies time and shielding Putin from defeat in Ukraine was a colossal mistake. Now we are all reaping the consequences.