During the repulsion of the Russian attack on the night of November 30, Ukrainian interceptor drones managed to shoot down several Russian jet-powered Shaheds for the first time.
This was reported by volunteer Serhiy Sternenko, who published a photo of the interception of one of the drones.
“A historic achievement! Tonight, for the first time, our soldiers downed several rocket-powered Shaheds using Ukrainian-made Sting interceptor drones!”, he said.
At the same time, the General Staff reported that Russia deployed a total of 138 jet-powered Geran-3 drones, a localized version of the Iranian Shahed-238. Most of them were successfully intercepted by Ukrainian air defenses.
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The debris of these drones was publicly recorded for the first time in early June 2025. Later, Russian sources published videos of tests of these drones, showing that they resemble the Shahed-238 jet variant, though with certain differences.
At the end of June, the remains of a Geran-3 drone with serial number U-36 were found. Given the total number of drones used — 138 units — this suggests that production of these drones is still small-scale.
Geran-3 / Shahed-238
In February 2025, the Main Directorate of Intelligence warned that Russia was launching production of its own analogue of the jet-powered Shahed-238, the Geran-3, equipped with a small Tolou-10/13 bypass turbojet engine (similar to the one used in the Shahed-238).
According to intelligence, this should provide a flight speed of up to 550–600 km/h and a range of 2,500 km — figures similar to the Iranian versions.
It is known that the Shahed-238, on which the Geran-3 is based, is 3.5 meters long, has a wingspan of 3 meters, and a height of 0.5 meters. Its maximum takeoff weight reaches 370 kg (in other documents 250 kg). The warhead weighs 50 kg.
It was believed that such characteristics would make the Geran-3 / Shahed-238 practically unreachable for mobile fire groups equipped with small arms and cannons, as well as for interceptor drones with electric motors.
However, practical experience in countering these drones has shown that at maximum speed they run out of fuel very quickly, giving them a very limited flight range.
The actual cruising speed of the Geran-3, recorded by the Ukrainian military, is approximately 300–350 km/h. The drones reach maximum speed only in the final segment or in certain parts of the route where Russian intelligence has detected Ukrainian air defenses. This makes these drones fairly accessible targets for Ukrainian interceptor drones.
Source and images: Serhiy Sternenko, Telegram @ssternenko | Instagram @wild.hornets. This content was created with the help of AI and reviewed by the editorial team.
