Design and capabilities
The Shahed-136 is a cropped delta-wing loitering munition built by Iran's HESA under Shahed Aviation Industries design, first shown operationally in 2021. It measures roughly 3.5 metres long with a 2.5-metre wingspan and weighs about 200 kilograms fully loaded. A Mado MD550 four-cylinder piston engine - a reverse-engineered copy of a German Limbach design - drives a rear pusher propeller to a cruise speed near 185 km/h. Range estimates vary by source, from roughly 1,000 kilometres to the US Defense Intelligence Agency's high-end figure of 2,500 kilometres; the difference largely reflects warhead weight, since heavier payloads cut range sharply. The nose carries a high-explosive or fragmentation warhead, most commonly cited at 30 to 50 kilograms, though Russian variants configured with a 90-kilogram warhead trade range down to around 650 kilometres. Guidance combines inertial navigation with GPS and GLONASS; some units add an electro-optical seeker for a terminal visual lock. Russia produces a localised copy at its Alabuga special economic zone under the name Geran-2, now the version most often encountered over Ukraine and, occasionally, EU territory. Estimated unit cost runs from roughly $20,000 to $50,000.
Operational history
Iran first used the type in 2019 against Saudi oil facilities at Abqaiq and Khurais, though open-source analysts still dispute how many drones in that strike were true Shahed-136s versus other types. Russia began large-scale use of the Geran-2 variant against Ukraine in 2022, and it has since become the backbone of nightly strikes on Ukrainian cities and power infrastructure. Ukrainian air defence, including MiG-29 sorties, Gepard self-propelled guns, and mobile fire teams, reports interception rates in the 65 to 85 percent range, though even that leaves dozens of drones reaching targets on the largest nights.
AirVeto context
On 20 August 2025, a Shahed/Geran-type drone crashed and exploded near Osiny in Poland's Lublin Voivodeship, about 100 kilometres from the Ukrainian border and roughly 70 kilometres from Warsaw. Windows were broken in nearby houses; no one was hurt. Polish officials initially disputed the drone's type before Defence Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz confirmed it as Russian the following evening. The recovered engine, delta-wing fragments, and acoustic signature are the recognisable markers AirVeto readers should look for when tracking this type's drift path along Poland's eastern border. At the time of the Osiny incident, Poland's defence ministry had logged seventeen prior cases of Russian drones crossing into neighbouring states: eight in Moldova, three in Romania, three in Lithuania, two in Latvia, and one in Bulgaria.