Invisible, cheap, and dangerous: Why Russians want to copy Ukraine's Chaklun drone

Contents
1. What is the Chaklun UAV
2. Advantages and capabilities of the Chaklun UAV
3. Characteristics of the Chaklun drone
4. The Chaklun UAV in the war against Russia
5. What is the Chaklun-V UAV

What is Chaklun UAV

Chaklun is an unmanned aviation complex of Ukrainian production, designed for reconnaissance and aerial photography. It was created by model aircraft enthusiasts from Dnipro, for whom working on aircraft before a full-scale war was a common hobby in the local model aircraft sports federation. This drone is not just manufactured in Ukraine - most of its spare parts are also manufactured here.

The name Chaklun is due to the fact that the drone travels the route unnoticed by the enemy - it is invisible both visually and to enemy electronic interception equipment. The drone records data about the target coordinates on a removable media and returns to its position unharmed.

The drone's body allows it to be placed in any car, and to launch the drone, neither a catapult nor a runway is needed. The military launches the drone from the hand.

The Chaklun complex includes two gliders equipped with GoPro Hero cameras, spare propellers, batteries, as well as a repair kit, a laptop with installed software, and a transmitter. In the case of purchasing a UAV, a 7-day training course for operators using a flight simulator is provided. The military claims that the Chakluns are very easy to control.

In October 2024, the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine officially admitted the Chaklun to operation, although in fact the Defense Forces used this UAV much earlier. The Ministry of Defense noted the drone's multifunctionality, the use of software created in Ukraine, and the ability to perform tasks despite bad weather conditions.

Advantages and capabilities of Chaklun UAV

"Chaklun" can fly in two modes - controlled (when the pilot has the ability to change course if necessary) and automatic (along a pre-set route).

"The airframe material is strong and at the same time sufficiently elastic. This makes it repairable in field conditions," the manufacturer's website states. It is emphasized here that the in-house production of both the hulls and many elements of the complex allows for rapid overhaul – replacing individual structural elements or transferring the surviving equipment to a new drone hull.

The flight duration of the Chaklun drone exceeds an hour, and the route length reaches 120 km. This is a result that is twice, or even three times better than the capabilities of quadcopters.

The manufacturers also emphasize the high resistance of the Ukrainian drone to Russian electronic warfare. If signs of spoofing are detected, the operator can adjust the course, and in the event of a loss of the GPS signal, the Chaklun continues to perform the assigned mission. The ability to program the aircraft's return point at any distance from its launch site increases the safety of operators, because they can change their deployment.

One of the main advantages of the Chaklun UAV is its low price – about 400 thousand UAH. Chinese quadcopters are more expensive, and cover shorter distances.

"The Chaklun drone has functionality and protection systems similar to those equipped with drones costing tens, hundreds of times more," the manufacturers assure.

Characteristics of Chaklun drone

Weight - 2.2-4 kg (depending on the payload)

Speed ​​- 90 km/h

Flight altitude - 300 m

Route length - 150 km

Wingspan - 1.4 m

Reconnaissance time - 1 h

Time to bring to working position - 5 min

Chaklun in war against Russia

As of autumn 2022, the Dnipropetrovsk Region Aviation Model Sports Federation was talking about more than 100 Chakluns in service with the Armed Forces of Ukraine. ArmyInform once made a photo report about one of the units that uses these drones, the 14th separate regiment of unmanned aviation complexes. The fighters, in particular, said that due to the low weight when using the Chaklun, one has to take into account the wind.

In the regiment, drones were used not only for reconnaissance, but also as strike aircraft. The operators noted that such a UAV is designed to destroy stationary targets - self-propelled guns, artillery, warehouses, pillboxes. This aircraft is not very suitable for catching up with infantry. Although there were different cases.

"We don't give peace to the ***. There was a case when I caught up with one (Russian serviceman, - ed.) in the head, in the back of the head. The helmet flew 50 meters. I didn't see if it was with the head or not. We had a target change then, I remember...We saw that the Russians were hiding in the forest belt, in burrows. We managed to reach them on the last pairs of batteries," said Volodymyr, with the call sign Franz.

The effectiveness of the Chaklun UAV was also noted by the Russians. Thus, the Russian Spektr Design Bureau reported that it had begun teaching students of the local Novosibirsk Aviation Technical College reverse engineering of weapons, that is, direct copying, Defense Express reported. And it was Chaklun that the Russians tried to copy.

"In the Russian Federation, at the developer level, they already have a great sense of the prospects in which the industry will find itself in the future due to the sanctions isolation, which allows only one way to implement it - copying. For Russia, the distance from declarations about a super-powerful scientific and technical school with breakthrough technologies to training students in reverse engineering turned out to be very short," the material said.

Defense Express noted that this is the path that Russian allies Iran and the DPRK are taking. The latter even demonstrated their copy of the MQ-9 Reaper, repeating even the fairing of the satellite communication channel in the nose. Moreover, the DPRK does not have its own satellite constellation.

What is Chaklun-V UAV?

While the Russians were trying to copy the Chaklun with a route length of 150 km, the Ukrainians created a modernized version of the drone, which the enemies had time to get to know well in the far rear of the Russian Federation. In March 2024, two kamikaze drones struck the power units of the Novocherkassk GRES.

"This strike is interesting not only for the object it was struck at, but also for the new the drone that was used for this. According to separate reports in the Ukrainian segment of social networks, the wreckage of the UAV that attacked the power plant in Novocherkassk belongs to the Chaklun-V drone, Defense Express wrote.

The publication reported that the flight range of the Chaklun-V is 500 km, and the warhead weighs 20 kg (approximately the same as the Shahed-131).

In the summer, new Chakluns attacked the Mozdok military airfield. Several more high-profile attacks using the Chaklun-V were recorded in early 2025. Observers have already estimated the operational range of the drones at 700 km. On January 8, the updated drones took part in the attack on the oil depot in Engels. At least 30 explosions were recorded there, and the fire lasted 5 days.

On January 21, 2025, Ukraine struck the Smolensk Aviation Plant, where the production and modernization of military aircraft, in particular the Su-25, as well as the production of Kh-59 missiles.

"According to Russian troops, the Chaklun-V has a combined warhead, the mass of which can be more than 20 kilograms, and its components are located in different elements of the drone's fuselage. This, in turn, can create a psychological effect when using such UAVs to strike Russian military targets," military observers believe.

• In January, 66% of Russian military equipment was disabled by various types of strike drones—7% more than in December 2024.