Author: Max Hender
KHARKIV REGION, Ukraine, April 29 (Reuters) – In a foggy field in northeastern Ukraine, four soldiers stared at red and yellow dots on a screen in the back of a van, equipped with interceptor drones and energy drinks to get them through the night.
These pilots, and about a thousand other aircrews like them, are on the front lines of Ukraine’s efforts to eliminate one of Russia’s most powerful weapons, the Shahid drone, from the war.
“Even if you shoot down one Shahed with 50 drones, it’s worth it,” said crew commander Boris, who was a television news producer before the war changed his life. “A shahed can fly in and destroy something more valuable.”
The pioneering low-cost long-range attack drone designed by Iran has indeed become the scourge of Ukraine, with Russia launching thousands of drones against its enemies every month. Moscow has tweaked the design of the Shahd missile, which it calls the Jelan missile, to include improved navigation and engines and a larger warhead.
While most Shahid drones and other long-range drones have been shot down by Ukraine, more than 1,000 of the approximately 6,500 drones launched last month were successfully shot down, according to Ukrainian Air Force data, causing severe damage to military infrastructure, cities and energy facilities, leaving millions without heat and light.
In February, new Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov announced a goal to eliminate 95 percent of Shahd and other long-range attack drones launched by Russia.
Air force data compiled by Ukrainian military charity Come Back Alive showed the interception rate for the month was just over 85%. Fedorov said that as Russia’s land campaign slows, strengthening air defenses is crucial to Ukraine’s ability to survive another year of war.
The operation is gradually bearing fruit, according to Reuters interviews with more than a dozen Ukrainian officials, manufacturers and soldiers involved in the operation. Fedorov himself said this month that the interception rate had risen to 90%.
Reuters was unable to independently verify data on drone launches and interceptions. The Russian Defense Ministry did not respond to a request for comment for this article.
Moscow has repeatedly denied targeting civilians and said the airstrikes were aimed at weakening Ukraine’s military. Ukraine has also launched thousands of long-range drones, also known as unmanned aerial vehicles, at targets in Russia, including energy facilities.
However, Ukrainians involved in the interception warned that getting a nationwide system involving thousands of air defense groups up to speed would take months and that gains could be short-lived in a technology race with Russia.
For example, the first interceptor to destroy a Shahid fighter jet in early 2025 became ineffective four months later, as the Russians realized they could outpace the Shaheed fighter jet by increasing its speed from 170 kilometers per hour to more than 200 kilometers per hour, according to Taras Tymochko, a technical expert at Come Back Alive.
Therefore, the interceptor must be upgraded to a flight speed of 300 kilometers per hour, and the interceptor must fly faster than the target, Tymochko said.
Yuriy Cherevashenko, a senior commander of the Ukrainian Air Force, said that about 15-20% of the “Shahed” fighters fielded by Russia now use jet engines instead of the usual propeller engines, which allows them to reach speeds of 400 km/h.
Fedorov told Reuters the solution to the problem lay in jet-powered interceptor drones, which he said Ukrainian manufacturers were currently developing.
SHAHED V Interceptor: The Battle of Low-Cost Drones
Shahid aircraft imported by Russia from Iran first appeared in Ukrainian skies shortly after Moscow’s 2022 invasion. The craft, which resembled miniature airplanes with their pointy noses and triangular wings, quickly became infamous for the high-pitched whine of their engines, earning them the nickname “mopeds.”
Russia now produces thousands of drones per month at its own factories, and they make up the bulk of its long-range drone fleet.
“As Russia builds more and more drones, they pose an existential threat to Ukraine,” said Samuel Bentet, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, a Washington think tank.
“So eradicating them is crucial.”
The cost has not been made public, but the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a US think tank, estimated last year that the Russian Shahid model would cost $35,000 to produce each.
By comparison, Ukrainian interceptor drones cost thousands of dollars each, with the cheapest models costing less than $1,500, according to the manufacturer. They are typically 3D-printed plastic domes filled with explosive bricks and powered by four small propellers.
For Ukrainian interceptor crews, working in the field can be frustrating.
The soldiers only had a window of minutes from the time the Shahed aircraft appeared on their radar until it moved out of range. They had to guide the interceptor toward the point until Shahed was spotted through the drone’s camera, then fly to the target and detonate.
Whether the target is found depends largely on weather conditions: “We had 10 launches one night and didn’t find one (Shahed),” Boris said.
After the invasion, he quit his television job, enlisted in the Army, and now commands a platoon of three interceptor personnel in the 420th Unmanned Systems Battalion. The 47-year-old asked that his full name be withheld in accordance with standard practice in the Ukrainian military.
Soldiers in the Kharkiv region were forced to abandon their mission after heavy fog descended on a cold March night – they could not see anything through the drone’s onboard camera.
Fedorov said Ukraine is currently working on autonomous drone guidance systems to make them more effective in adverse weather conditions.
Commander: We have a chance to defeat Shahid
Swarmed by more than 500 drones some nights, Ukraine has had to quickly invent ways to defend its cities, power grids and military factories at the lowest possible cost. It has a nationwide, multi-layered system to shoot down drones, with equipment including electronic warfare, interceptor drones, pickup trucks with heavy machine guns, helicopters and fighter jets.
Air Force Chief Cherevashenko said the military was drawing on lessons learned from Russia’s drone campaign last summer and winter to defeat the Shaheed.
“We have a great opportunity to do that.”
The effectiveness of the electronic warfare systems used to disrupt the Shaheed’s navigation varies, but on some nights they can suppress nearly half of the drones launched during attacks, air force spokesman Col. Yuri Inat said.
Cherevashenko said that interceptor drones can currently shoot down 40% of Russian Shahd weapons and other long-range attack drones, compared with about 25% in winter.
Inat told Reuters that Ukrainian F-16 fighter jets were also involved, with each fighter capable of shooting down as many as 10 Shaheds a night.
Cherevashenko said one of the main challenges is Russia’s use of artificial intelligence to create new approach and flight plans, which makes it difficult for Ukraine to keep up.
He also highlighted the use of a “mesh network”, in which a group of drones act as signal transmitters for each other in a grid spanning 120 kilometers, allowing them to defeat Ukrainian navigation interference.
On the bright side, Ukraine’s interdiction efforts are getting a boost from an unlikely source: remote work.
Cherevashenko said some top pilots now fly interceptors remotely over the Internet in multiple regions of Ukraine, switching between video feeds instantly. Ground support crews set up the drones and signal antennas, but the pilots can be anywhere.
(Reporting by Max Hunder; Editing by Daniel Flynn, Mike Collett-White and Pravin Char)
