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.

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