Russia continues to modernize its Geran-2 (Shahed-136) drones with Iranian participation. However, components from not only Tehran but also from other parts of the world have been identified in a number of types of Russian drones and missiles.
UNN reports with reference to the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.
Details
The Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine has discovered that Russia uses over 100 foreign components for the production of missiles and drones. The register of foreign components identified by experts from Ukrainian research institutions in the aggressor country's missiles and UAVs has now been updated.
Key details:
- Russia continues to modernize its main means of destruction, in particular the Geran-2 (Shahed-136) UAV. In some cases, modernization takes place with the participation of Iran;
- the use of such UAVs with an Iranian-made thermobaric warhead has been recorded;
- a Shahed of the MS series (previously reported by the Main Intelligence Directorate) has been recorded, probably of Iranian production. The UAV used an Nvidia Jetson Orin mini-computer, specialized for AI tasks and video processing. Russia also uses similar computers in the V2U attack UAV.
- Russia also installs its own production warheads with a cumulative impact core on new "Shaheds" to penetrate protected shelters;
Regarding the participation of other countries:
To initiate detonation in the aforementioned new Shaheds of the Russian Armed Forces, contact target sensors are used. In some UAVs, the use of warheads with damaging elements in the form of metal balls and the possibility of non-contact detonation by signals from an optical sensor (laser rangefinder, lidar) at a certain distance from the target was recorded.
In this case, the SF20 laser rangefinder from the South African company LightWare was used.
Recall
Despite long-term Western support for Ukraine, Russian weapons still contain foreign-made components, and companies may not even know that they are supplying components to Russia, - said Andriy Yusov, a representative of the Main Intelligence Directorate, in June 2025.