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Air Defenses at Risk? Russia May Be Arming Shaheds With New Guidance Tech
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![Photo of Vlad Litnarovych]( "Photo of Vlad Litnarovych")
Russian forces may have begun equipping Shahed-type attack drones with passive radar-homing systems, potentially enabling them to target air-defense assets.
The information was reported by the Polkovnyk GSh Telegram channel—reportedly closely connected to Ukraine’s military—on March 29, after a component allegedly recovered from a downed or crashed drone was listed for sale on the Ukrainian military auction platform Reibert.
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The device, priced at $3,200, is described as a passive radar homing unit that allows a drone to autonomously track sources of radio emissions during flight.
Photos and technical details published alongside the listing indicate that the module includes four directional antennas.
If confirmed, such a system could significantly alter how Shahed drones are used. Instead of following pre-programmed coordinates, the drones could actively seek out and engage emitting targets—particularly radar systems used by air defense units.
In effect, this would bring the drone’s functionality closer to that of an anti-radiation missile, designed specifically to detect and destroy radar sources.
A technical breakdown of the recovered components suggests the use of elements derived from Russia’s state identification systems.
Among the identified parts is an antenna module linked to the “Lira-VM” system, marked as 125AE02 TsIVR.464651.015.
This component is associated with Russia’s unified state radar identification network, typically used in aviation and air defense systems.
The appearance of such technology inside a Shahed drone points to a potential effort to repurpose existing military electronics for new battlefield applications.
If widely deployed, these modified drones could pose an additional challenge for Ukrainian air defense units, forcing operators to reconsider how and when radar systems are activated during incoming attacks.
Earlier, Russian forces have been observed mounting a Soviet-era R-60 air-to-air missile in reverse orientation on a Shahed-type drone, possibly to engage Ukrainian helicopters involved in drone interceptions.
-bfd07b2c04922e244847e2ef1a0dd9aa.jpeg "The severed tail of a US Air Force E-3 Sentry (AWACS) lies in ruins after a reported Iranian drone and missile strike at a Saudi air base. (Source: OSINT)")
-72b63a4e0c8c475ad81fe3eed3f63729.jpeg "Photo of Cyril Barabaltchouk")
