Russia’s growing use of jet-powered UAVs challenges Ukraine’s air defense

The new models are fundamentally different from older UAVs in both technical specifications and acoustic signature. Fitted with Chinese-made turbojet engines, the updated drones can reach speeds of up to 500 kilometers per hour, nearly three times the speed of common propeller-driven Shahed drones, which fly at about 180 kilometers per hour.

These loitering munitions carry warheads weighing roughly 50 to 90 kilograms. In flight they produce a high-pitched whistling sound rather than the low hum associated with propeller drones, making it easy to confuse them with cruise missiles.

The purpose of using high-speed drones, analysts say, is to exhaust and saturate Ukrainian air defenses. Yurii Ignat, a spokesman for Ukraine’s Air Force, said the new targets are largely out of reach for Ukraine’s mobile air-defense units and specialized anti-drone interceptors, which have top speeds of about 300–350 kilometers per hour.

To shoot down the jet drones, Ukrainian troops now often must expend scarce and highly valuable surface-to-air missiles (SAMs). That, in turn, creates gaps in layered defenses that Russian forces can exploit with ballistic and cruise missiles.

Military analysts have recorded a steady increase in the share of jet drones used in combined Russian attacks. Observers say Russia has launched from about 30 to more than 100 of these high-speed drones at once during recent mass strikes.