Ukrainian air defense personnel engaged in intercepting Russian Shahed series of long-range one-way attack drones have published footage showing multiple examples of the weapons literally disintegrating in the air before reaching their targets — a visible sign of deepening manufacturing
Any 50 dollar drone from Amazon flies precisely too.
https://isis-online.org/isis-reports/monthly-analysis-of-russian-shahed-136-deployment-against-ukraine
No idea how credible that source is, it’s the first one I’ve found and the estimates seem plausible.
Overall the hit rate is at its lowest point of 8.2%, shaheds specifically 12.66% in March 2026, steadily dropping, despite the launch volume increasing, which corresponds to the quality of the drones lacking in Russian production. The strike effectiveness is estimated at around 5%. That’s for a 48k$ production cost. So no, the dismissive tone is pretty much appropriate. It doesn’t seem that the Russian “customizations” are working out for them. Slapping a more powerful engine and a nearly doubled payload on a drone doesn’t make it more effective in some magical way. It runs out of spec, and is produced using an untrained workforce in some quickly rigged up factory.
It’s a plain volume weapon used to saturate air defences, and the occasional hit is a nice to have. The only reason they still have a payload is because if they would only launch decoys Ukrainian air defences would avoid shooting at them at all.
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