Russia starts using Iranian jet loitering munition against Ukraine

An Iranian drone used by the Russian invaders was shot down in the Ukrainian sky.

Photos of the jet loitering munition debris were published on social media.

A military expert in the field of radio technology and blogger Serhii Beskrestnov “Flash” also confirmed this information.

According to the photos of the white wreckage, it is likely that the Ukrainian air defense system shot down a Shahed-238 jet loitering munition, which was recently officially presented in Iran.

According to Serhii Flesh, the drone managed to fly over half of Ukraine before being shot down. According to him, the drone was flying at a speed of over 500 km per hour, which is almost three times faster than the flight speed of the Shahed-136.

The fragment of the part of the drone body where the engine is located is marked “MJ0”. There is an assumption that the letter “J” here might stand for a jet engine.

At the same time, Beskrestnov noted that these Iranian UAVs can fly all over the country. There were doubts about this earlier, as it was not officially confirmed what the maximum range of these drones was.

He noted that the new Shahed has a warhead similar to the one installed on the Shahed-136, which has long been used by the Russian invaders to strike Ukraine. The drone also uses a similar navigation system during flight. It is worth noting that although the speed of the jet loitering munition is high, Ukrainian air defense managed to shoot it down.

Shahed-238

Iran officially presented the Shahed-238 jet loitering munition in November 2023. The drone was demonstrated by the Iranian Ashura Aerospace University of Science & Technology at the development presentation. Shahed-238 was presented in three versions with different guidance systems.

In addition to the classic version with an autonomous inertial navigation system and GPS (in the middle), versions with infrared/optical and, presumably, radar guidance systems were also presented.

The US edition of The War Zone noted that the engine on the downed drone could be the TEM Tolue-10, which is an Iranian clone of the Czech PBS Aerospace TJ100 turbojet engine. In the past, a similar engine has been identified on several cruise missiles developed by Iran.

Previously, a Russian Major General claimed in an interview with a propaganda media outlet that Shahed-238 jet loitering munitions have a maximum flight speed of 800 kilometers per hour. However, this data has not been officially confirmed.