Russia launched production of an analog of Iranian Shahed drone – ISW
The Russian Stratim Design Bureau has launched a low-cost analog of the Iranian Shahed drone called the Yastreb (“Hawk”) with a flight range of 350 kilometers and a warhead of 800 kilograms.
This is reported with reference to a report by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
Stratim claimed that Russian forces will use the Yastreb drone as a decoy to distract Ukrainian air defense systems – a tactic Russian forces have employed previously in strike series in Ukraine.
Flight tests of the prototype are currently underway, and it is planned to start flight tests of the finalized product in the first half of 2024.
The ISW report also states that on January 18, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu visited the Raduga State Machine-Building Design Bureau, a subsidiary of the Tactical Missile Arms Corporation, in the Moscow region.
Earlier, Shoigu gave the company an order to increase the range of unidentified weapons from 250 kilometers to more than 300 kilometers. The Tactical Missile Arms Corporation’s CEO Boris Obnosov said that the company has already tested a weapon with a range of 310 kilometers.
Obnosov also noted that the Raduga State Design Bureau has reduced the cost of producing this weapon and increased its warhead from 450 to 800 kilograms.
Raduga CEO Serhiy Bohatikov stated that the company had doubled its staff, purchased new testing equipment and tools, expanded its production facilities, and established 12-hour shifts, which allowed it to work around the clock and increase production.
Bohatikov's statements and some facts indicate that since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion, Raduga has increased its production of precision weapons eightfold.
