Swedish RBS-70 Credited With First Geran-5 Jet Drone Kill Near Kiev

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine has credited a Swedish RBS-70 man-portable air defence system with shooting down a Russian Geran-5 jet-powered strike drone over the Kiev region, the first such kill attributed to the weapon around the capital. In a statement on November 13, the General Staff said that air defence personnel of the 1027th Anti-Aircraft Missile and Artillery Regiment had carried out the interception. The statement thanked the crew for its precision and Sweden for supplying the system, but gave neither the date nor the exact location of the engagement. The kill is significant because the Geran-5, flying considerably faster than the propeller-driven Shahed family, has proved considerably harder for the interceptor drones and mobile fire groups that Ukraine relies on against slower attack drones to catch, leaving short-range missiles among the few lower-tier weapons able to engage it.

The acting commander of the regiment’s RBS-70 crew, who uses the callsign “Vigo”, had described the engagement in an interview released through the Armed Forces Media Center on November 11. He stated that the drone was flying at more than 500 kilometres per hour and dives towards its target only a couple of minutes before impact, which leaves very little time to acquire it. He attributed the success to the missile’s guidance, stating: “The main feature of the RBS-70 is the absence of a homing head that reacts to heat.” The 1027th Regiment was formed in March 2025 from an anti-aircraft battalion of the 101st Separate Guard Brigade of the General Staff and belongs to Ukraine’s Ground Forces. The kill comes as Kiev looks for more ways to counter jet drones, with the Czech Republic having agreed on November 11 to supply four L-39 Skyfox jets expected to serve in a drone hunting role.

Ukraine’s Defence Intelligence Directorate first described the Geran-5 in January, stating that it reaches speeds of up to 600 kilometres per hour, has a range of nearly 1,000 kilometres and weighs about 850 kilograms. Its engine is a Chinese-made TELEFLY TF-TJ2000A turbojet, and the directorate noted significant similarities between its design and that of the Iranian Karrar drone. Earlier kills of the type near Kiev were credited to a STING S interceptor drone in September. An interceptor crew of the 1020th Regiment also reportedly destroyed one flying at 425 kilometres per hour at an altitude of more than three kilometres. Russia has continued to launch the jet drones within combined attacks that rely on mass drone salvos, while Ukraine has kept up its own long-range campaign, including the strike that set the Volgograd refinery ablaze on November 13.

The RBS-70 uses laser beam-riding guidance, with the operator holding the sight on the target while the missile follows a laser beam projected from the launcher. Decoy flares and the target’s heat signature therefore have no bearing on whether the missile hits. Saab lists an effective range of more than 9,000 metres and altitude coverage up to 5,000 metres for the current RBS 70 NG, whose Bolide missile flies at up to Mach 2. The manufacturer unveiled a new Bolide 2 missile for the system on May 8, with first deliveries scheduled for the second quarter of 2027.