Russia Builds New Launch Site for Geran-5 Drones in Six Weeks

Russia has established a new site to prepare and launch Geran-5 jet-powered strike drones in about six weeks.

Satellite images published by the OSINT channel Absolutely Reliable Source show this.

The site has at least eight prepared launcher positions and 32 areas for preparing drones for launch.

The new facility is located near Millerovo in Russia’s Rostov Region, at coordinates 48.995968, 40.286255.

The satellite image also shows equipment and objects identified as part of a drone unloading operation.

About six weeks passed between the start of site preparation and the appearance of the main elements of the launch infrastructure.

The author of the analysis suggests that construction was accelerated to increase the number of jet-powered drone launches following their extensive use during attacks on Ukraine in September.

In its layout, the new facility resembles Russia’s Tsymbulova drone launch site in the Oryol кegion, which also has separate areas for storing, preparing and launching jet-powered drones.

In September, Militarnyi reported the expansion of the Tsymbulova site. Russian forces built additional garages, converted above-ground shelters into underground ones and began preparing additional launch positions for Geran-5 drones.

At the time, sites for six more launchers were being prepared near the existing launch positions. Towers for anti-drone nets and communications equipment were also being built.

Ukrainian long-range strikes have repeatedly targeted Tsymbulova.

In September, Ukrainian drones hit some of the bunkers and damaged hangars at the site. Satellite images also showed signs of detonations and debris from destroyed drones in the area where they were prepared for launch.

Following another strike on October 1, storage areas and launch infrastructure at the site were again damaged.