Geranium-5
Russian Shahed-136 variant using Chinese Telefly engine; disintegrating in flight as of May 2026.
Last refreshed: 10 May 2026 · Appears in 1 active topic
Timeline for Geranium-5
Identified as using inferior Chinese Telefly jet engines
Drones: Industry & Defence: Russian Geranium drones falling apart in flightWhat is the Russian Geranium-5 drone?
Why do Russian Geranium drones use Chinese engines?
How much does a Russian Geranium drone cost?
Background
Geranium-5 is one of Russia's Shahed-136-derived loitering munition variants, produced at the Alabuga facility in Tatarstan. Like Geranium-3, it uses a jet engine supplied by the Chinese manufacturer Telefly rather than the Iranian-specification powerplant used in the base Geranium-2 variant.
In May 2026, Ukrainian air-defence units reported Geranium-3 and Geranium-5 drones arriving with physical signs of mid-flight disintegration, including torn access panels and bent wingtips . The quality degradation has been linked to Telefly engine unreliability and abbreviated pre-flight checks at Alabuga under production-cadence pressure. Russia's drone hit rate fell to its lowest level since March 2025, despite launching from a base of 50,000 to 55,000 Shahed-type drones in 2025.
Geranium-5 and Geranium-3 represent a supply-chain dependency that Western export controllers can specifically target: restricting Telefly's component access would degrade both variants simultaneously. The finding builds on earlier CSIS reporting (U#6) identifying US-origin chips inside Russian autonomous drones, adding Chinese engine failure as a second discrete supply-chain vulnerability in Russia's volume drone programme.