Barrage ammunition attacks Ukrainian army facilitiesThe second half of September brought news from the zone of the special military operation (SVO): the Ukrainian military reported numerous cases of destruction of military equipment and infrastructure facilities by enemy barrage ammunition of a previously unknown type.
The inscription "Geranium-2" is visible on the discovered fragments of the hull, and the remains of the power plant indicate the use of an Iranian Mado MD550 piston engine. The officers of the artillery batteries of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) located near Chuguev were the first to sound the alarm. A direct hit destroyed a self-propelled howitzer 2C3 "Acacia": enemy ammunition swooped on it, pierced the upper armor plate and exploded inside the tower, causing the detonation of six-inch shells.
An eyewitness to the kamikaze drone strike, Captain of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Vladimir Danchenko, shared his impression with the American newspaper Wall Street Journal: "It didn't look like artillery, which we are all used to, I haven't seen anything like this before."
Tehran does not officially recognize the shipment of its armourers' products to the conflict zone. This does not make it easier for the APU. The commanders of the 92nd brigade operating in the Kharkiv region note increased losses: due to the use of new drones, two armored personnel carriers, four self-propelled guns were destroyed and a 155-mm M777 howitzer was damaged. In the reports of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation for September 16-17, it is said about strikes on the 92nd brigade and other parts of the AFU in the areas of Dvurechnoye, Shevchenkovo and Kupyansk with the destruction of "over 10 units of special military equipment and vehicles", but it is not specified what caused the fire damage.
According to the AFU fighters, towards the end of the month, the Russians significantly intensified air raids. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) of the Orion, Outpost and Orlan families, capable of withstanding multiple combat use, continue to be used. These machines have been tested in Syria and are mass-produced.
High-ranking officials, including the head of the government Mikhail Mishustin and his deputy Denis Manturov, after the start of the SVO began talking about the need to increase the production of UAVs for the needs of the active army. At the same time, it was recognized that it would not be easy to sharply increase production due to insufficient productivity of specialized industry. Even after the transition of individual enterprises (for example, the recently erected plant in Dubna) to a three-shift operation mode.
The second important direction is to increase the production of barrage ammunition – disposable UAVs capable of circling in the search area for a long time. In order to detect and identify enemy military equipment with onboard sensors, and then destroy it with a blow from above. To do this, the device itself (in automatic mode) or on command from the control point switches from patrol mode to dive, hitting the target due to kinetic energy, followed by the detonation of the warhead and the burning out of unspent fuel.
It is in this way that Geranium-2 operates. Here, the creators of the device have not invented anything new: such tactics were first used by Israeli devices ("Harpy", etc.) in the last century. The successful use in the Arab-Israeli conflict has led to great interest in the novelty on the global arms market. He is satisfied with the supply of finished products from Israel, the release under license, as well as without it – the reproduction of the design according to drawings or selected remains.
To date, dozens of countries around the world have purchased or launched the production of such products. Among the Russian developments, we note the "Lancet" of the ZALA Aero company from the Kalashnikov Group. The use in the SVO zone revealed problems: a small warhead (warhead increased on the upgraded version) and a low production rate.
It seems that a radical way to solve them has been found – the Geran-2 drone, which has a lot in common with the Shahid 135 and Shahid 136 UAVs of Iranian design. The topic of a scarce power plant was solved by using the MD550 serial engine of Mado company from the city of Kum. Engineering solutions – as on the German Limbach L550. The cylinder capacity is 0.55 liters, the power is 50 hp. This engine does not represent anything outstanding, but it is reliable, cheap and affordable.
The disadvantages of the "shahids" are low speed (200 km / h) and increased noise at characteristic frequencies from the operation of the motor and the pushing propeller. This is their main unmasking feature ("Geranium-2" has already been nicknamed "lawn mower"). Meanwhile, good engine cowling and exhaust into the air flow of the pusher propeller reduces infrared visibility, up to the impossibility of targeting thermal air defense missiles. A radical solution is to replace the internal combustion engine with a modern electric motor with the transfer of the screw to reduced defenses. But this will lead to a decrease in the range (from 2000 km) and the time of barrage in a given area (8-10 hours), as well as to a significant increase in price.
The next disadvantage of the "Geranium" is suboptimal aerodynamics. The "flying wing" scheme with a large sweep angle along the leading edge gives low flight quality (the ratio of lift and drag). The creators of the "Shahid" are guided by the "flying wing" because it provides a fast set of speed during a dive, leading to an increase in the high-explosive effect of detonating the warhead due to kinetic energy. Israeli experts have found a different solution: the wing is equipped with straight (not arrow-shaped) tips, which are automatically or on command fired back when entering a dive. The endings increase flight quality at typical patrol and target search speeds (120-180 km / h), which increases the duration of the flight or makes it possible to "exchange" it for an increase in payload. However, this increases the complexity and cost of the products.
If the device is controlled from a ground control point, then due to problems with radio communication, it cannot move away from it by more than 150-200 km. The solution is to use a larger UAV (for example, "Shahid–129" or "Mohajer-6") as a repeater. If the Shahid-136 does not find a suitable target in the search area using onboard electro-optics, it is sent to attack a stationary target with known coordinates. Radio communication is no longer needed, because the guidance goes through the on-board receiver of the satellite navigation signal (the Shahid-135 variant does not have electro-optics, so it immediately goes to a stationary target). The American GPS-NAVSTAR grouping can fail at the right moment, so it's better to use the Russian GLONASS and the Chinese Beidou. Perhaps this is the main difference between the Geranium-2 and the prototype. In any case, the defeat of stationary objects in Odessa (headquarters buildings near the seaport) and in Dnepropetrovsk was inflicted with jewelry precision.
Despite the low speed and visual and acoustic visibility, kamikaze drones proved to be a difficult target for the air defense of Ukraine, weakened by numerous strikes by the Russian Aerospace Forces during the seven months of its operation. Thermal missiles are not aimed at Geran-2, radar missiles are many times more expensive than the target itself, and its illumination by a radar beam is fraught with the arrival of a Russian X-31P missile guided by radiation.
Kamikaze drones have become an important addition to the extensive arsenal of weapons of destruction of the Russian army. According to Western estimates, the consumption of Russian cruise missiles during the SVO exceeded 3.5 thousand units. The Shahid-135/136 is an order of magnitude cheaper than the 3M14 missiles of the Kalibr complex, not inferior in maximum range. The kamikaze drone has 10 times less flight weight (200 kg), carries a smaller warhead (36 vs 450-500 kg) with comparable dimensions (length is less by 2.5 m, wingspan by 1 m). Cheap and at the same time long-range "Geran-2" will increase the fire pressure on the APU to the entire depth of the Ukrainian territory. And thus will bring the inevitable denouement closer.
