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War in Ukraine

Russia Strikes Ukraine with Upgraded and Highly Destructive 90 kg Warhead Drones

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Illia_ kabachynskyi
Illia Kabachynskyi
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Russia is striking Ukrainian cities with a new, deadlier variant of the Shahed-136 drone—now carrying nearly twice the explosive payload but with a shorter range.

Ukrainian military officials report a surge in attacks using the upgraded Shahed-136 in 2025. Originally designed in Iran and mass-produced in Russia, these drones are constantly being modified to outmaneuver Ukraine’s evolving air defenses.

Source: Getty Images.
Source: Getty Images.

Russia has been deploying Shahed drones equipped with an enlarged warhead.

  • The updated version carries a 90 kg warhead, compared to the previous standard of 50 kg. The explosive payload itself has increased from 28 kg in the earlier model to 62 kg in the new version.

  • This modification makes the upgraded Shahed-136 significantly more lethal, capable of causing greater destruction and generating a stronger blast wave upon detonation.

Engineers had to sacrifice flight range to accommodate the heavier warhead. The modified drone’s range has been more than halved, dropping from 1,350 km to approximately 650 km.

Reports of upgraded Shahed-136 drones have circulated for some time. Test models were commissioned as early as 2023, with trials conducted over the next six months. During this period, Russia launched around 30 drones at Ukrainian cities to assess their effectiveness.

If the 90 kg warhead version performed well, Russia planned to increase orders to 1,000 units. The growing presence of these drones suggests they have now entered mass production.

Russia has been aggressively producing other Shahed variants in addition to these modifications. By April 2024, reports indicated that Russia intended to manufacture at least 10,000 units with 50 kg warheads by the end of the year. These drones would feature different payloads, including thermobaric and fragmentation-incendiary warheads.

Russia’s drone production efforts have accelerated dramatically. Nearly every night, dozens of drones attack Ukrainian civilian areas. In a single month, Russia can launch over 1,000 combat drones targeting Ukraine’s infrastructure, residential districts, and energy facilities.

  • From January 1 to mid-June 2024, Russia launched 2,277 drones.

  • However, between August and October 2024 alone, this number surged to 4,300—twice as many Shahed drones in half the time.

  • In October alone, Russia deployed over 2,000 units. Russia has also increasingly used unarmed Shaheds as decoys to divert Ukrainian air defense systems.

In 2024, Russia produced twice as many Shahed drones as in 2023, and its production plans for 2025 remain equally ambitious.

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