Shahed-238

Iran's jet-turbine loitering munition — a faster, more expensive successor to the Shahed-136, deployed by Russia as the Geran-3 in Ukraine and by Iran in the Gulf.

Overview

The Shahed-238 is a jet-powered, delta-wing one-way attack UAV developed by Iran's HESA under the IRGC Aerospace Force. It trades the piston-engine economy of the Shahed-136 family for roughly three to four times the cruise speed, a more sophisticated sensor suite, and multiple seeker options. Russia produces a license-derived version, the Geran-3, with a different engine and cruder airframe, and has used it operationally against Ukraine since mid-2025. Iran itself has employed the original in strategic strikes across the Persian Gulf. The platform represents a shift from mass-attrition saturation attacks to selective high-speed penetration, while its cost and engine-supply dependencies sharply constrain volume.

Development

Iran publicly unveiled the Shahed-238 in a state television documentary in September 2023 and formally presented it in November 2023 as a faster, more penetrating evolution of the Shahed-136, retaining the same delta-wing layout but with a redesigned streamlined nose and a reinforced fuselage that accommodated a Toloue-10 or Toloue-13 micro-turbojet — an unlicensed Iranian derivative of the Czech PBS TJ100/TJ150 family, according to OSINT research Army Recognition. Russia began importing Iranian production kits and standing up licensed assembly at the Alabuga Special Economic Zone in Tatarstan; Ukraine's GUR assessed that mass production of the Geran-3 derivative had begun by February 2025 Army Recognition. The first confirmed wreckage — a Geran-3 bearing serial “36” and designation “U” — appeared on the Telegram channel Military Informant on 29 June 2025 Army Recognition. Ukrainian sensors had already recorded an incoming jet-drone at over 515 km/h above Kyiv on 10 June 2025 Army Recognition.

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