Russia is deploying new ‘Geran-Siker’ drones: what is known about these unmanned aerial vehicles with machine vision
Sergey Beskrestnov (‘Flash’), a specialist in radio technology, reported on the new variant. Certain technical specifications of the Geran family of drones were also published by Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate in the War&Sanctions database of the GUR
Recently, the name ‘Geran Seeker’ has been mentioned with increasing frequency by the Russian military. According to Sergei Beskrestnov, this refers to a variant of the ‘Geran’ family of attack drones, designed to locate and engage high-value targets.
According to him, the ‘Siker’ module can be fitted to various versions of the ‘Geran-2’, ‘Geran-3’ and ‘Geran-4’ drones. Recently, the ‘Geran-4 Siker’ variant has been spotted most frequently.
According to the expert, the drone is equipped with several cameras operating in different modes, as well as a Mesh modem for data transmission and control. He cites the Raspberry Pi-based automatic target recognition, acquisition and tracking system as the variant’s key feature. Once the operator has designated a target, the drone can continue the attack without constant manual control.
According to Beskrestnov, this system potentially reduces the effectiveness of certain electronic warfare systems, as once a target has been acquired, guidance is carried out using machine vision algorithms.
Some of the technical features of the new Russian drones have already been confirmed by the Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine. The War&Sanctions database has published the specifications of the Geran-4 rocket, which include a Chinese Mesh modem, a turbojet engine, a flight controller, navigation modules and other electronic components. However, the GUR does not use the name ‘Siker’ and does not specifically confirm the presence of an automatic guidance system, as reported by Serhiy Beskrestnov.
Furthermore, Ukrainian intelligence had previously reported on other variants of the Russian ‘Geran’ drones, which were equipped with cameras, Raspberry Pi devices, Mesh modems and other systems for remote control and video transmission. This indicates that Russia is continuing to modernise its attack drones and integrate modern communications and image-processing capabilities into them.
For Ukraine, this means that Russian attack UAVs are gradually becoming more technologically sophisticated, and their modernisation may require the further development of countermeasures. At the same time, certain specifications of the ‘Geran-Siker’ disclosed by Serhiy Beskrestnov currently remain an expert’s assessment and have not been fully confirmed by official sources.
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