The first Shahed-238 with a jet engine was shot down on the territory of Ukraine.
It managed to reach the middle of the country, moving at a speed of over 500 km/h (which is 2-3 times more than the maximum speed of Shahed-136). Iran showcased it for the first time only in November 2023.
Ukrainian officials could not confirm this information, but evidence shows that there are almost no other options.
The publicly available images depict the wreckage of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) equipped with a small turbofan engine exhibiting visual similarities to the Shahed-238, namely the triangular recess design of the air intake, the positioning of specific access panels, the overall aerodynamic configuration, and the geometry of the fuselage.
However, the main problem with the identification of the wreckage is that there is nothing to compare it to, as the case of the North Korean KN-23 ballistic missile, which was most likely used to hit Kharkiv, has confirmed. Assumptions provide a starting point for reasoning, but they should be treated cautiously as more information becomes available. It is highly possible that the engine is of Chinese origin, going beyond supply of dual-purpose goods, since this component is objectively the most complex in the entire drone.
It is worth mentioning that components from 16 companies based in the US, Japan, Canada, and Switzerland have been found inside the Shahed-136 kamikaze UAV.
