Iranian Shahed-131 Drones Use US $50 Parts From eBay

The Center for Strategic Communications of the Armed Forces of Ukraine has updated information about Iranian kamikaze drones

Shahed-131. They are used less frequently by the Russian army than the Shahed-136, and are simplified versions of the latter.

What is known

Report on the study of unmanned aerial vehiclesThe apparatus did not reveal anything top-secret that we might not know or guess. Still, there are some interesting details in the material. Shahed-131 was developed by the Iranian company Shahed Aviation Industries Research Center. The body is made of carbon fiber and reinforced with metal inserts.

In the flight control unit of the drone wereTMS320F128335 microcontrollers of the American company Texas Instruments were discovered. You should not look for conspiracy theories here, since such boards are freely available. For example, on eBay, the cost of one chip is about $50. Five chips were found in Shahed-131.

In general, almost all unmanned aerial vehiclesthe device is made of materials that are available for free sale, i.e. sanctions have no effect on Shahed Aviation Industries Research Center in this case. A GPS receiver (also civilian level) is installed on board the kamikaze drone. It allows the device to attack only stationary targets. A feature of the Shahed-131 is the presence of a system to prevent the substitution of GPS signals by means of electronic warfare.

The inertial system allowsa suicide drone to fly in areas where there is no GPS signal. But in this case, it can deviate from the target by 1-5%, depending on the speed and direction of the wind. For understanding, at a distance of 1 km, 5% turns into 50 m. When a GPS signal appears, the drone must correct the direction of flight.

Shahed-131 is more compact in comparisonwith Shahed-136. The wingspan has been reduced from 2.5 m to 2.2 m, and the length has been reduced from 3.5 m to 2.6 m. In addition, the drone weighs 135 kg instead of 200 kg and has a range of 900 km instead of 2000 km (as stated by the manufacturer ). For this, a battery consisting of 35 cells with a total capacity of 17,000 mAh is used. The mass of the warhead is 10-15 kg versus 15-20 kg for the 136th version.