The Russian military used the "Geranium"-2/3 drones in strikes on military targets deep inside Ukraine from last night to early this morning. Among them, the "Geranium"-3 is a Russian copy of Iran's "Shahed" 238. Compared to the "Geranium"-2, which is a copy of Iran's "Shahed" 136, the "Geranium"-3 no longer uses a piston engine but instead uses a jet engine, with a flight speed of 500-600 kilometers per hour, three times that of the "Geranium"-2 drone. The flight altitude exceeds 5,000 meters, making it impossible for Ukrainian mobile air defense portable anti-aircraft missile teams, self-propelled anti-aircraft guns, and modified anti-aircraft guns to intercept. To destroy the "Geranium"-3, the Ukrainian military can only use more expensive air defense missiles or deploy fighter jets. However, the number of more advanced air defense missiles available to the Ukrainian military is limited, and deploying fighter jets involves problems of air-ground coordination, which is quite risky.
The Ukrainian military has shot down several "Geranium"-3 drones. After analyzing the wreckage, they became very unsettled, as there were Western components, especially the fuel pump of the "Geranium"-3 drone, which was produced by the German company Bosch. Of course, Germany would not provide components to Russia. Therefore, the discovery of German components in the wreckage indicates that despite Western sanctions against Russia, Russia still has ways to obtain Western components. It should be noted that the production volume of the "Geranium"-3 is quite large, so the demand for fuel pumps is also very high, indicating that Russia is not just obtaining a small batch, but rather a large number of fuel pumps to support the production of the "Geranium"-3 drones.
Original text: www.toutiao.com/article/1841697893862412/
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