Exhibition for Putin: Russians presented allegedly new “Shahed” with homing

Exhibition for Putin: Russians presented allegedly new “Shahed” with homing Natalia Belzetskaya

Russia allegedly has produced a “Shahed” with an electro-optical homing head. It is to be equipped with satellite communications, which would effectively turn it into a long-range loitering munition.

In fact, this situation looks more like Russian propaganda than reality. This opinion was expressed to 24 Channel by the editor-in-chief of Defence Express Oleg Katkov, noting that they started talking about new drones without any confirmation or evidence.

Where did the information come from

Some Russian military personnel published a photo with a correspondent of the enemy central propaganda publication. Further in the description they gave information about the allegedly newest “Shahed” with a homing head.

“A lot of Ukrainian sources wrote about this right away. And we got to the bottom of it and realized that it was an introduction to a story about Vladimir Putin's visit to St. Petersburg to a plant that produces “Orlans” and electronic warfare stations. There they made an exhibition of BLLA for him, where they put this “Shahed”, – said Oleg Katkov.

In fact, they didn't even mention it in the story itself. Besides, the exhibition took place on September 19. After that, no one talked about the “Shahed” either.

Does it even exist

The existence of the “Shahed” with a homing head became known in February 2024. Then hackers broke into one of the Iranian companies that is involved in the supply of its drones to Russia. Among the documentation were such mentions immediately with tactical and technical characteristics, that is, a large amount of information became known.

Therefore, since February 2024, this development not only exists, but is offered to Russia. Obviously, since about that time it has existed in the form of a model, – Katkov noted.

An electro-optical homing head is indeed used, that is, there should be a television channel, possibly a night one. All this is a transformation of the “Shahed” from a long-range kamikaze drone, which is sent to hit stationary ground targets at a distance of up to 2 thousand kilometers, to a loitering munition, the range of which depends on the communication range.

What is the difference between these drones

The usual “Shahed” is a long-range kamikaze drone. That is, the projectile is sent to the coordinates and it flies. That's all – it has no connection with the operator, it is sent one way.

But a loitering munition is one that maintains constant communication with the operator, for example, the Lancet. A long-range drone up to 40 – 70 kilometers, which the operator can control by looking into the camera. The Russians want to turn the Shahed into an analogue of the Lancet according to the project of installing a homing head on it.

In theory, if you install a homing head and satellite communications on the Shahed, you can get a loitering munition with a range of up to 2,000 kilometers and maintain control of it until it is re-aimed at another target. Attacking moving targets is possible at any range, because Starlink has no control range, – said the editor-in-chief of Defense Express.

Could Russia go this way? If it has access to a huge number of Starlink terminals, which it will purchase in thousands of units, then perhaps the Russians will go for it,

But a certain positive for us and a problem for Russia is that the occupiers cannot simply go and order Starlink terminals. They receive them only through third countries, “gray schemes”, which the Pentagon is actively fighting. Therefore, there is no opportunity to organize such powerful supplies yet.