EXPLAINER: Killer drones vie for supremacy over Ukraine

They are precise, small in size, able to effectively penetrate air defenses when fired in groups and above all, they’re cheap.

In Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, killer drones have cemented their reputation as a potent, cost-effective weapon that can seek out and destroy targets while simultaneously spreading the kind of terror that can fray the resolve of soldiers and civilians alike.

They’re also quickly surpassing missiles as the remote weapon of choice. Known as “the poor man's cruise missile,” the flying death machines can flood any combat theater much more cheaply.

Russia’s unleashing of successive waves of the Iranian-made Shahed drones over Ukraine has multiple goals — taking out key targets, crushing morale, and ultimately draining the enemy's war chest and weapons as they try to take them out.

HOW DO WARTIME DRONES WORK?

The Shahed drones that Russia has rebranded as Geran-2 are what are known as loitering munitions, which are also in Ukraine's arsenal.

Packed with explosives, they are preprogrammed with a target's GPS coordinates. They can then loiter overhead and nosedive in for the kill. That's reminiscent of Japan's World War II-era kamikaze pilots who would fly their explosive-laden aircraft into U.S. warships and aircraft carriers during the war in the Pacific.

According to the Ukrainian online publication Defense Express, which cites Iranian data, the delta-wing Shahed is 3.5 meters (11½ feet) long, 2.5 meters (8 feet, 3 inches) wide and weighs approximately 200 kilograms (440 pounds). It's powered by a 50-horsepower engine with a top speed of 185 kph (114 mph).

The drone has previously been used in Yemen and in a deadly oil tanker attack last year, said Behnam Ben Taleblu, senior fellow at the Washington-based think tank Foundation for Defense of...