Ukraine’s Defence Intelligence (HUR) has published on the War&Sanctions portal an interactive 3D model, information on the components and the electronic component base of the ‘Gerbera-2’ UAV.
Intelligence officials said the adversary has significantly upgraded the ‘Gerbera’ unmanned aircraft, which were originally developed as decoys to overwhelm air defences. The first versions had ‘Reconnaissance’ and ‘Kamikaze’ variants, but remained fairly simple and inexpensive systems. Over time, their “internals” began to approach the equipment found on much more expensive ‘Geran’ type UAVs.
Recently, the enemy began using an enlarged version of the ‘Gerbera’. The new model has a 3 m wingspan and a 2.6 m fuselage length. Thanks to a new 63-litre fuel tank, the drone can cover a distance of up to 1,200 km.
To maintain stability during manoeuvres, the tank is divided internally into separate sections. The two-cylinder two-stroke engine is effectively half of the engine from the ‘Geran-2’, whose production has been localised in Alabuga. The examined sample used an OFZBCh-10 fragmentation high-explosive incendiary warhead weighing 10 kg, as well as separate bags containing an incendiary mixture. The drone can carry a warhead weighing up to 25 kg.
The ‘Gerbera-2’ electronics include an upgraded flight controller, a 12-channel ‘Kometa’, a mesh modem manufactured by Shenzhen Sinosun Technology Co., Ltd (PRC), and a new ‘Sausage’ video processing unit implemented on the basis of the Chinese Coke Pi microcomputer.
The examined sample had a dual IP camera mounted on the fuselage above the fuel tank and intended to detect interceptors. The presence of versions with forward-facing IP cameras and cameras on three-axis gimbals was also confirmed.
The new ‘Gerbera’ contains the largest number of components from Chinese (8) and American (4) manufacturers.
Intelligence believes that the UAV’s operational range, increased thanks to the large fuel tank, indicates that its area of use could extend beyond Ukraine’s territory. It was the ‘Gerbera-2’ with a warhead that was found in mid-September on Poland’s Baltic coast.
- Satellite images confirm that Russia is setting up a new UAV launch site near the “Millerovo” military airfield in Russia’s Rostov region, which borders the temporarily occupied territory of Luhansk region.