Geran-4
Russia's jet-powered Shahed: a purpose-built, ~500 km/h one-way attack drone designed for one job — to fly faster than the cheap Ukrainian interceptor drones that had been knocking the propeller Shaheds out of the sky. The speed comes at the cost of range.
Russia's jet-powered evolution of the Shahed-136/Geran-2 one-way attack drone — a purpose-built, ~500 km/h airframe designed for a single purpose: to fly faster than the cheap interceptor drones Ukraine had been using to shoot the propeller Shaheds down. The speed is bought at a steep cost in range.
Overview
The Geran-4 (Герань-4) is the newest jet-powered member of Russia's Shahed/Geran family of long-range "one-way attack" (OWA) drones, disclosed by Ukraine's Defence Intelligence (HUR) on 25 May 2026 through a component teardown published on its War&Sanctions portal. Unlike the Geran-3 — a jet engine bolted onto a re-used propeller-Shahed body — the Geran-4 is built on a purpose-designed, reinforced airframe intended from the outset for high-speed flight. Its reason for existing is narrow and revealing: by early 2026 Ukraine was downing the bulk of subsonic Shaheds with $1,000-class interceptor drones, and the Geran-4 is Russia's attempt to simply outrun them. Caveat up front: nearly every internal specification below traces to that single HUR teardown, corroborated across reporting but not independently verified — treat the figures as Ukrainian-intelligence-sourced.
Development
The Geran-4 is the third rung of Russia's jet-drone ladder, after the Geran-3 (an Iranian Shahed-238-derived re-engining) and alongside the larger Geran-5. Where the Geran-3 inherited the Geran-2's airframe and could not safely sustain the speeds its jet allowed, the Geran-4 introduces integrated (non-detachable) wings and fewer fuselage access hatches to cut drag and survive higher dynamic loads. Production rests with JSC SEZ PPT Alabuga in Tatarstan, the special-economic-zone plant adapted from Shahed-136 assembly; the powerplant is a Chinese Telefly turbojet, reportedly imported disguised as refrigeration units. HUR frames the whole program explicitly as a counter-interceptor measure — a survivability upgrade, not a new guidance brain.
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