Shahed 131
Iranian loitering munition
The Shahed 131 (Persian: شاهد ۱۳۱, literally "Witness 131"), or Geran-1 (Russian: Герань-1, literally "Geranium-1") in Russian service, is an Iranian-made one-way attack drone which came to prominence in October 2022 during the Russo-Ukrainian war, when it was used by Russia to attack critical Ukrainian infrastructure and civilian targets. It is powered by a Wankel engine model Shahed-783/788.
Design
The Shahed-131 is powered by the Serat-1 Wankel engine, a 38-horsepower unit that is a copy of the Beijing Micropilot UAV Control System Ltd MDR-208 Wankel engine and is derived from the British AR 731 engine. An engine of this type was used for the drone in the 2019 Aramco attack in Abqaiq, which was referred to the UN Secretariat as part of the Resolution 2231 2020 investigations. The airframe is constructed from lightweight composite materials, including carbon fiber cloth or fiberglass with a honeycomb core, which contributes to its low radar cross-section.
The Shahed-131 flight control unit was found to be able to connect with Iridium satellites, which in theory allows the flight path to be altered mid flight. The flight controller has a backup inertial navigation system by MEMS gyroscope. Its primary instructions are derived from a commercial-grade GPS unit, which in later versions deployed by Russia has reportedly been modified with anti-deception algorithms to mitigate GPS signal alterations.
Designs for the Kentron ARD-10 loitering drone were sold to Iran Aviation Industries Organization in 2004/5 and used by Shahed Aviation Industries to develop the Shahed 131 and Shahed 136 drones, according to Air Forces Monthly magazine. However a Royal United Services Institute article states the origins of the Shahed 131 are obscure.
“Shahed 131” enters the record as iranian loitering munition. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Shahed, Iranian and loitering can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 11, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q114981592. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2022, 2019, 2020 and 2004.
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