Russia will not stop its air attacks on Ukraine. Worse, Moscow wants to strike even stronger. This is in any case what suggests the appearance on the front of a new version of drones, the Geran-3, relayed by several specialized media including Defense Express.
The Directorate General for Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine had already alerted its production last February, evoking “a series of significant changes” in the Russian army.
700 km / h
As the Geran-2 was a similar version of the Iranian drone Shahed-136, the Geran-3 becomes the Russian version of the Shahed-238, presented by Iran for the first time in the fall of 2023. “Russia sets up the production of a similar Shahed-238 missile”, explained the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense in February.
Since then, it would have been found on the front thanks to the analysis of the debris of drones intercepted by kyiv. Main difference with its anterior version, the Geran-3 is propelled with a small double-flow turborateur engine Tolou-10/13. Enough to allow him to reach 550-600 km/h, up to 700 km/h even in the attack phase. Much better than the Geran-2 which is dragged, barely, at more than 200 km/h because of its propulsive propulsion system.
🇷🇺🇺🇦 Geran 3.0 is the new variant of Russian Shahed drones.
Up to a 300kg warhead, max range of 2,000km, and a flight ceiling of 9km. The jet propulsion engine gives this drone a cruising speed of 600km per hour.
This drone is far from mass production, and I can’t even… pic.twitter.com/9AHpdjNgCz
— Heyman_101 (@SU_57R) July 12, 2025
Without this being confirmed on the Geran-3, the Iranian Shahed-238 was also equipped with an optical guidance system by infrared in order to reach thermal contrast targets.
Other significant advantages of this new drone: it can transport up to six times more explosives for a range of 2,500 kilometers. Again, performance much higher at the Geran-2, which is already effective on the Ukrainian front.
Inevitable disadvantage of this 500 kg drone, the presence of fuel for the engine makes the device more easily detectable by thermal radars. Described as “more powerful and faster” by the specialized media United24, the Geran-3, manufactured in Russia but with Iranian components, is also “more expensive”. The invoice per device amounts to nearly $ 80,000, compared to almost 20,000 for the Geran-2.
A price that would not cool Moscow’s ardors. According to Kirill Budanov, chief executive officer of Ukrainian intelligence (HUR), in an interview with The War Zone, Russia would have asked North Korea to set up a Geran drone manufacturing plant, to push its production target to more than 2,000 per month.
