Ukrainian intelligence details the Geran-5 K5-K, a faster variant of Russia's jet drone

Ukraine's military intelligence agency HUR has published details of a new variant of Russia's Geran-5 attack drone, the Geran-5 K5-K, on its War&Sanctions portal and Telegram channel. HUR says its design and performance put it in the class of small cruise missiles, and that Russia began using it against Ukrainian cities in early autumn 2026.

HUR says it examined an almost intact example that landed in a field, fitted with a TBBCH-90 thermobaric warhead. The K5-K is about 2.5 metres shorter than the 6.5-metre Geran-5, with a 3-metre wingspan about 20 cm smaller. According to HUR, its ceiling rose from 5 to 6 km and its cruise speed to more than 450 km/h, with up to 1,000 km/h in some manoeuvres, while its 1,000 km range and 90 kg warhead stayed the same. It is said to use a TRD-200 turbojet assembled in Alabuga from Chinese parts.

HUR says its avionics match the latest jet-powered Geran-4, and that it carried a Susanin optical correlation unit, here with a dual-band camera, which compares camera images with a stored reference to keep the drone on course. The unit runs on a Coke-Pi microcomputer, a Chinese counterpart of the Raspberry Pi.

According to HUR, 52 of the 93 electronic components came from the US, ten from China and ten from Switzerland, and Russia tries to hide the markings on parts such as Texas Instruments signal processors and Murata inertial modules.