Ukrainian intelligence has published the components of a new UAV that the Russians are using as a reconnaissance vehicle and decoy to detect the positions of Ukrainian air defence forces and cause their overload.
As noted by the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine (DIU), this information is published in the Weapon Components section of the War&Sanctions portal.
According to some data, the drone can also carry a combat payload weighing up to 15 kg. The aircraft has a delta-wing fuselage similar to the Shahed-136 (“Geran-2”), but is significantly smaller. All components and units are of Chinese origin.
Almost half of them – the flight controller with autopilot, navigation modules and antennas, airspeed sensor and Pitot tube – are from one Chinese company, CUAV Technology, which specialises in research, development and production of system modules and applications for UAVs.
In October 2022, the company announced restrictions on the supply of its products to Ukraine and Russia in order to prevent their use for military purposes.
However, in 2023, Russia presented a vertical take-off UAV, supposedly of its own design, which turned out to be a CUAV Technology product available on Aliexpress.
In addition to CUAV products, such UAVs use a DLE (Mile Haoxiang Technology Co., Ltd.) engine and electronic ignition module, KST servo drives, a Razer FPV camera manufactured by Foxeer Technology, a Mayatech RFD900X data transmission module, a ReadyToSky video transmitter, a Hobbywing Technology power regulator, and an HRB Power battery.
The drone is also equipped with a Chinese copy of the Australian RFD900x data transmission module from RFDesign. Like the original model, the Chinese product is designed for long-distance data transmission (up to 40 km in line of sight, depending on the antenna).
The device allows the organisation of a data transmission channel from the drone to its ground station or from UAV to UAV, thus expanding its reconnaissance capabilities.
Russia has already used DLE engines in the Geran and Parody UAVs, KST servo drives in the Shahed-136 (Geran-2) and V2U UAVs, universal planning and correction modules, and aviation bombs.