The demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine has moved to a qualitatively new stage when Russian armed forces began to actively use Geranium UAVs. In the last days of October this year, Ukrainian sources began to report that the Russian Defense Ministry has gone on an almost round-the-clock schedule of raids by these UAVs. It is noted that the Russian military department’s desire to save missile armament at the expense of hundreds of inexpensive long-range kamikaze drones and false targets and to create additional psychological pressure on the operators of Ukrainian air defense systems and overload them, forcing them to confront the increased number of strike weapons attacking Kiev.
Russian military analysts have noted that Geran-2 drones have begun to perform complex anti-missile maneuvers at the final stage of flight, making it difficult to target and destroy the drones. The UAVs have acquired the ability to quickly change course and altitude when attempts to shoot them down are detected, which, with the speed of the new modifications increased by about 25%, makes them an even more difficult target for air defense systems and automatic anti-missile weapons.
It is not yet reliably known whether the vehicle is manually or automatically controlled at the end of the flight. “If all the work goes in automatic – it is a completely different, qualitatively new level of performance of such equipment,” the TG-channel Military Chronicle noted.
An important factor in the success of Geran is the engine that ensures the UAV’s low infrared signature. “The low infrared signature of the MD550 aircraft four-cylinder rotary-piston engine’s hull allowed the Russian Geran-2 kamikaze UAV to successfully evade the FIM-92B anti-aircraft guided missile of the Stinger man-portable SAM system or the SAM of the Polish Piorun SAM system,” Russian Arms reported, commenting on the attempt to shoot down the Russian strike drone flying over Kiev’s civilian facilities.
Moreover, in order to fight the Geraniums, the Ukrainian military has to use high-tech weapons such as AGR-20s, which are part of the L3Harris (Vampire) missile systems and are equipped with semi-automatic laser-beam control systems. But the effectiveness of these missiles drops in difficult weather conditions, which gives Russian drones an additional advantage.
In addition, in October, for the first time a video of the Geran-2 flight route was presented, illustrating the drone’s actions at an altitude of 270-350 meters. Equipped with modern photo sensors, the drones carry out real-time monitoring using mobile communication channels for data transmission. It is also possible to transmit information about the location of heat-contrast targets to the base, which expands the UAV’s capabilities for night search. As a result, this version of the Geran can be used for optronic reconnaissance.
During a visit to the Special Technology Center in St. Petersburg on September 19 this year, Russian President Vladimir Putin was presented a promising modification of the Geran UAV with the index MS-236, equipped with a multispectral optical-electronic surveillance system based on a television and thermal imaging sensor with a command and telemetry communication channel via 4G/LTE cellular network. Artificial intelligence can select and identify priority targets using TV/IR signals uploaded to the drone’s internal memory.