Iranian Shahed-131s are virtually invisible to radar and very quiet, but carry up to 15 kg of explosives.
On January 14, Russia could strike Kyiv not with missiles, but with Iranian Shahed-131 kamikaze drones. This assumption was made by the Ukrainian soldier and the founder of the A.Drones project Yuriy Kasyanov on the channel in Telegram.
The expert drew attention to the fact that the explosions in Kyiv began without an air raid warning. As he suggests, instead of missiles, Russian troops launched Shahed-131 (Geran-1) drones, which are almost half the size of Shahed-136. They carry 10 to 15 kilograms of explosives and are very inconspicuous.
Photo: New time
Due to its small size, most radars do not see the approach of Shahed-131, and if they do, it is only at close range. In addition, it is not audible, unlike the Shahed-136, nicknamed “mopeds” in Ukraine because of the characteristic loud sound. The thing is that the smaller model has “special” low-power engines.
“The Wankel motor, conditionally pistonless, is an analogue of the British AR731 engine, which was cloned in China under the name MDR-208, and re-cloned in Iran under the name Shahed-783,” Yury Kasyanov shared.
He added that Shahed-131 became famous thanks to the successful attack on the world’s largest primary oil refinery in Abqaiq and the Khurais oil refinery in eastern Saudi Arabia in September 2019, after which oil production in the country fell by half. In addition, such drones have already flown to Kyiv.
“The Abqaiq plant was defended by three Skyguard air defense batteries, and the entire area was covered by Patriot and Shahie, which turned out to be powerless against a group of small low-flying drones with a small effective dispersion area,” the expert emphasized.
Yuri Kasyanov recalled that Ukrainian intelligence reported the launch of Shahed-131 production in the Russian city of Togliatti. He criticized experts who call for the production of strike drones with heavy warheads weighing at least 50 kg.
“The greater the mass of the warhead, the larger the drone, the easier it is to notice it. It is not the mass of explosives that is important, but accuracy, tactics of use,” the military summed up.
Previously written about details of the rocket attack on Kyiv on January 14. Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko reported an explosion in the Dniprovskyi district and falling debris in Goloseevsky, the KGVA reported damage to a car in Darnitsky. It was also reported that a missile hit infrastructure facilities.
December Yuri Kasyanov told which drones will help the Armed Forces of Ukraine win the war. He argues that the military needs cheap UAVs that can be quickly produced on a large scale.
