A shed made of plywood on the Ukrainian Black Sea coast. Windows covered with foil. Nothing suggests that the elaborate structure hides high-tech military equipment. That's how it should be - the soldiers who work there want to remain undercover, writes German public broadcaster ARD.
One of them - Oleksiy - shows German journalists what's inside. From the six camp beds, it is clear that work is carried out there around the clock. On a monitor, which is a radar screen, drones are visible flying in the sky. The Ukrainian drones are blue, and the Russian ones are orange - to avoid confusion with the air defense.
While Oleksiy shows the screen to journalists, numerous enemy drones are circling in the sky at an altitude of 6,000 meters. The problem is that it is not known what their intentions are, whether they already have a specific target, when they will strike.
Drones with up to 600 km per hour
The height and speed of the Russian drones make them unreachable for Oleksiy and his squad from here, from the ground. These are drones with jet engines that can reach speeds of up to 600 km/h - too high for the Ukrainian air defense and ordinary interceptor drones.
Since the beginning of the year, Russia has further developed its attack drones, also called kamikaze drones. They were developed based on the Iranian Shahed model, which, according to Ukrainian secret services, also contains German technology, writes ARD.
But if initially it relied on supplies from Iran, in the meantime the Russian military industry has long successfully copied the Iranian machines, produced them in large quantities and renamed them "Geran" - a name coming from the geranium plant.
For the "Geran-2" and "Geran-3" drones, which can only reach speeds of up to 200 km/h, Ukraine quickly found a countermeasure and the rate of their interception was correspondingly high. But "Geran-4" and "Geran-5" are now equipped with jet engines and the Ukrainian air defense has no way to fight them, the interception quota has dropped significantly.
Ukraine must adapt again
Because of this, metropolises like Odessa or Kiev have been under constant fire since July, air raid warnings sound up to 20 times a day. People describe the situation as "air terror". And Ukraine must once again adapt and learn how to counter new Russian technological developments. A life and death race, summarizes ARD.
A new source of pride for Ukrainian soldiers are the P1Sun interceptor drones of the Ukrainian company Skyfall, Oleksiy explains to the German public media. With their help, much larger "Shahed" can be effectively and inexpensively shot down from the sky or "Geran".
But even this weapon is powerless against the new, faster models "Geran-4" and "Geran-5". These drones are too high and circle too fast over Odessa. They remain out of range - for now. But Ukraine is on the way to catching up in the technological race.
Gradually Ukraine is making progress
"We have already started intercepting the new drones," Dmytro Pletenchuk, a spokesman for the Ukrainian Navy, told the German public media. He did not provide details. However, a few days ago, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that a solution had been found.
According to him, a new interceptor weapon has been successfully tested. And the Wild Hornets arms company reported on social networks that a "Geran" with a jet engine was intercepted. And with Sting S-type interceptor drones, which flew faster than usual, and were also equipped with a thermal camera capable of detecting the hot exhaust trail of the "Geran" drones.
Now all that remains for Ukraine is to put the new models into mass production and train soldiers to work with them. "When tactics change, it takes time to adapt. This is normal during war. And the enemy continues to evolve,", Pletenchuk, a spokesman for the Ukrainian Navy, told ARD.