The intactness of the downed UAV suggests that a jammer system was used. The UAV is painted black, which shows some deviation from the Iranian standard of white colour. This might be a new counter-countermeasure against visual detection systems during night-time.
Russia is known to manufacture Shaheed-136 kamikaze UAVs under the name of Geran-2 with structural changes and different electronics. The Ukrainian personnel who retrieved the drone used the opportunity to get an update on the components used in production.
As Defence Blog reports, a navigation antenna found in UMPK glide bombs was observed on the downed UAV, which might be taken as a move to localize components. Another critical change is foam-like filling for the structure as opposed to Iran’s honeycomb-type filling. The former is easier to apply as opposed to the honeycomb.
All these changes hint Russia is making changes to simplify production to meet the demand for regular use of the UAVs and adopting new measures to evade Ukrainian defences.
Iran has recently revealed another collaborative kamikaze UAV work with Russia, Shahed-107. Russia’s part in the work is relaying requirements to Iran after the experiences on the field with other kamikaze UAVs.
Shaheed-107 is reported as a derivative of Shaheed-101 kamikaze UAV with a V-shaped tail. Shaheed-101 has a generic form with wide wings and is smaller than Shaheed-136 long-ranged kamikaze UAV. One Shaheed-101 UAV was retrieved in Iraq for technical inspections. The UAV doesn’t feature an electro-optical system, but that might be where Shaheed-107 diverges from the parent design.
