Russia equips decoy Gerbera drones with explosive payloads

Feb 3, 2025 - 22:00

russia equips decoy gerbera drones explosive payloads wreckage russia's drone (l) warhead found gerbera-and-payload russian forces have begun equipping weighing up 5 kg military communications specialist serhii flash beskrestnov reported

Russian forces have begun equipping their Gerbera decoy drones with explosive payloads weighing up to 5 kg, military communications specialist Serhii “Flash” Beskrestnov reported on 3 February. This could further strain Ukrainian mobile fire groups.

Russia’s Gerbera drones were first spotted in July 2024 during a massive drone attack on Kyiv Oblast. These UAVs are designed to imitate Shahed-136 one-way-attack drones and are used en masse to overwhelm Ukrainian air defense systems. Russian forces now deploy dozens of these decoy drones almost every night alongside the Shaheds, which carry 50 kg payloads,

Beskrestnov published photos a crashed drone and a warhead extracted from it, saying:

“The white foam decoy drones now carry various types of combat payloads, ranging from 3 to 5 kg of explosives.“

According to Militarnyi, Flash’s photo shows that the drone was equipped with a serial Russian OFBCh-2.5 high-explosive fragmentation warhead filled with OKFOL, an explosive mixture typically used in shaped charges. This explosive device was specifically designed for drones and is commonly used in Russian tactical strike drones “Kub-UAV” with an electromechanical impact fuse.

The installation of the combat payload appears crude, Militarnyi notes, suggesting this could be a local modification rather than a factory-wide upgrade of the drone model.

“However, the very fact of installing explosives on decoy drones can significantly complicate the work of demining units and mobile fire teams, which will no longer be able to ignore the Gerberas,” Militarnyi wrote.

Defense Express warns that examining the debris of such drones could be dangerous, as Russian forces might install self-destruct mechanisms triggered by time delays or other factors. The publication adds that given the drones’ simple and inexpensive electronic components with low accuracy, Russian forces might deliberately use these Gerberas to strike cities where precise coordinates are not essential.

Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence reported earlier that these drones feature a significantly simplified design using primitive materials to minimize costs, making them dozens of times cheaper than the Shahed-136 strike drones. The basic structure consists of a plywood and foam fuselage, engine, basic onboard computer, and a soft polyethylene fuel tank.

Defense Express added that these drones originated from designs by China’s Skywalker Technology, a company that develops aircraft models and fixed-wing drones primarily for recreational use. The publication adds that the drones have also been observed carrying cameras and modems with mesh network technology for reconnaissance and signal relay purposes.

Drone warfare innovations have become a defining feature of the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian war. Unmanned vehicles of various sizes, operating in the air, on land, and at sea, play a central role, with technology advancing rapidly from both sides.

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