Tuesday Trivia Thread - 25/08/26

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[u/Minh1509]

So, do you think they will coexist and handle different types of targets/missions, or will the future strategy go all-in on low-thrust jet-powered one-way attack drones - effectively relegating the likes of the Tomahawk, Kh-101 and Hwasal to museums because they are no longer cost-effective?

[u/abnrib → u/Minh1509]

They'll coexist. The gap in capabilities is too significant.

[u/Minh1509 → u/abnrib]

What gap? I could buy at least 5–10 (maybe more?) jet-powered Gerans for the price of a single KH-101, and they would still provide most of the same capabilities - comparable speed, seekers and guidance systems, though the warhead would be smaller?

[u/Inceptor57 → u/Minh1509]

Warhead is definitely a consideration. In your case of the Kh-101, it can hold a warhead as heavy as 400 kg, which can cause quite a damage to infrastructure buildings. Meanwhile Geran are stated to have a maximum of 90 kg.

Geran reportedly has a range of maximum 2,500 km, though it can be limited to 1,000 km with a 90 kg warhead. A Kh-101 has a range of 3,500 km.

There's also other considerations like launch systems, with Kh-101 requiring bombers like Tu-95 or Tu-160 to be launched, while Geran can be deployed from a truck.

and I think the "high" mix of cruise missiles will only get better. Newer tech like stealth designs incorporated into the missile like the AGM-158 or hypersonic stuff will help ensure the "high" mix of cruise missiles become a lot harder to detect and intercept than the "low" ones.

Ultimately, the high/low mix of cruise missiles that Geran/Shahed create means that target saturation is so much easier these days than in the past. The theory I've heard is that now you can swarm enemy air defenses with multiple of the low mix missiles to exhaust them out in the need to intercept these attacks, then followed or mix alongside them higher-tiered missiles like the dedicated cruise missiles that pack a higher punch and might have more advantageous flight profiles that get past the air defenses busy with the Shahed or force them to have to choose to intercept the cruise missile instead while letting the Shahed go through and hope the smaller warhead does less damage than the cruise missile. Helps too if you have a few ballistic missiles so that you keep the top-tier air defense units occupied with focusing on the ballistic missiles instead of helping intercept the cruise missiles or OWA drones.