Czech engine and Western electronics: components of the Shahed-238 drone revealed

Ukrainian analysts have studied the parts of the Shahed-238 jet drone shot down in Ukraine.

Defence Express published a detailed description of the drone.

The publication’s journalists have a report on the “disassembly” of the Russian Shahed-238 drone.

The drone, a new model for Ukraine, is equipped with a jet engine, which was identified as a TJ150 manufactured by the Czech company PBS Velká Bíteš.

The engine, with a maximum thrust of 1500 N, weighs only 18.9 kg with a diameter of 272 mm and a length of 518 mm. The company is positioning it as a special solution for unmanned aerial systems.

This engine supplies the Shahed-238 with a speed of about 520 km/h on the midcourse, which the Ukrainian military recorded during radar surveillance.

The drone is controlled offline by an onboard navigation system based on an inertial system with satellite signal correction.

A block of four TW1721 antennas by the Canadian company Tallysman is used to receive satellite navigation signals. Their processing is realized on AD9361BBCZ chips from Analog Devices, MIMXRT1052 microcontroller by NXP USA Inc, and N63A0QI chip by Intel, all from the USA.

The inertial navigation system is also built on Western electronics and uses STM32F405 microcontroller chips manufactured by STMicroelectronics (Switzerland) and the iSensor ADIS16480 inertial system by Analog Devices (USA).

The Shahed-238 flight control and command module is built around the TMS320 F28335PGFA microprocessor by Texas Instruments (USA).

Shahed-238

Iran officially presented the Shahed-238 jet in November 2023. The Iranian Ashura Aerospace University of Science & Technology unveiled the drone at a presentation of its developments.

The documents published by the group of PRANA Network hackers demonstrate that in 2023, Russia was exploring the possibility of establishing the production of these drones at its plant in Alabuga, where partial production and assembly of the Shahed-136 is already underway.

In April last year, a Russian delegation allegedly visited a training ground where tests of a jet drone were demonstrated. The Shahed-236 (MС-237) Strike Jet Drone with an Inertial Guidance System also took off successfully, performed the mission according to the flight assignment, and successfully landed by parachute.

Representatives of the delegation noted that, given the high speed, the drone is essentially a cruise missile. According to them, the main advantage is its ability to quickly hit key targets.

The published presentation states that the jet drone carries a 50 kg warhead. It can reach speeds of up to 600 km/h and cover distances of up to 2000 km. However, the latter parameter is most likely erroneous and, according to other data, is 1000 km.

According to publicly available information, it is impossible to determine where the downed drone was manufactured and whether Russia was involved in its assembly.