Gerbera and Parodiya: Russia's decoy drones, speed and specs

The Gerbera is a cheap Russian decoy drone that looks like a Shahed: a plywood frame covered in foam. It is launched together with strike drones so that air defence spends time and missiles on it. Most Gerberas carry no explosives, but some carry up to 5 kg. It flies at up to 160 km/h; the map counts with 140 km/h, as for a Shahed. The Parodiya is an even simpler decoy, also made of plywood and foam.

An almost intact white Gerbera drone with a delta wing lying in dry grass dusted with snow — A Gerbera downed by border guards in Sumy Oblast on 5 January 2025. Photo: State Border Guard Service of Ukraine, CC BY 4.0.

What is the Gerbera

The Gerbera is a decoy: from the ground and on radar it looks like a Shahed, but it costs a fraction of one — about $10,000, according to Ukrainian officials ^[1]. The airframe is a plywood frame covered in foam; the engine is a hobby-grade DLE60. It is about 2 m long with a 2.5 m wingspan ^[1].

Since 2025 the Gerbera keeps changing: in autumn 2025 two cameras appeared on it, probably to spot interceptor drones ^[2], and in August 2026 the military showed a much larger version ^[3].

And what is the Parodiya?

The Parodiya is the simplest decoy: plywood and foam, no warhead, and a bag of fuel instead of a tank. Inside is a Luneburg lens, partly covered in foil, so that on radar it looks like a Shahed ^[4]. It is about a metre by a metre ^[5]. The name is informal: according to Air Force spokesman Yurii Ihnat, the drone has no official name ^[6].

Why Russia launches decoys

To overload air defence. Every target on radar has to be tracked and a decision made on what to shoot it down with, and a decoy cannot be told from a Shahed until it is seen. According to Ihnat, Shaheds usually make up to 60% of the drones in an attack and the rest are Gerberas and Parodiyas; in one spring 2026 attack on Kyiv about 90% were Parodiyas ^[7]. According to the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), the share of decoys is falling in 2026: in August Shaheds made up about 74% of launches ^[8].

The Air Force reports them like this: "Shahed-type strike drones, Gerbera, Parodiya-type decoy drones" — without a separate number for the decoys ^[9].

Is the Gerbera dangerous?

Yes. Some Gerberas carry a warhead of up to 5 kg ^[1], and any downed drone may not explode right away. Do not approach the wreckage or film it up close — call the police (102) or the emergency service (101). During an alert, take shelter as you would from a Shahed: from the ground you cannot tell them apart.

How long a Gerbera takes to reach cities

The times below are for a straight line from the launch sites to the city centre at 140 km/h (the speed the map uses for every drone of this class — see Sources). They are a lower bound: decoys, like Shaheds, fly in loops. Beyond 600 km (the maximum range in Defence Intelligence's catalogue) no time is shown ^[1].

Gerbera flight time from launch sites to cities (straight line)
From	Kyiv	Kharkiv	Dnipro	Odesa	Lviv
Bryansk Oblast (Churovichi)	1 h 35 min 217 km	2 h 45 min 382 km	3 h 20 min 465 km	—	—
Kursk	3 h 420 km	1 h 25 min 193 km	2 h 40 min 372 km	—	—
Oryol	3 h 25 min 473 km	2 h 20 min 331 km	3 h 35 min 506 km	—	—
Primorsko-Akhtarsk	—	3 h 20 min 462 km	2 h 35 min 357 km	4 h 5 min 574 km	—
Chauda (Crimea)	—	4 h 556 km	2 h 45 min 390 km	3 h 5 min 430 km	—

A white Gerbera drone lying on the cracked ice of a pond — A Gerbera on a frozen pond in Kyiv Oblast, February 2025. Photo: State Emergency Service of Ukraine, CC BY 4.0.

Gerbera specifications

Type	decoy drone (Shahed imitator)
Materials	plywood frame covered in foam ^[1]
Size	~2 m long, ~2.5 m wingspan ^[1]
Engine	DLE60 hobby piston engine ^[1]
Speed	up to 160 km/h; on the map, 140 km/h ^[1]
Altitude	up to 3 km ^[1]
Range	~300 km in open sources, up to 600 km in Defence Intelligence's catalogue ^[1]
Warhead	usually none; some Gerberas carry up to 5 kg ^[1]
Price	~$10,000 (Ukrainian officials' estimate) ^[1]

How Gerberas are shot down

With the same means as Shaheds: mobile fire groups, interceptor drones, electronic warfare. Sting interceptors alone, according to their maker, have downed over 11,000 Shaheds, Gerans and Gerberas since the start of 2026 ^[10]. Some decoys simply fall when they run out of fuel.

What a Gerbera looks like on the map

A pale yellow hollow delta marker is a "Decoy". The map shows it only when a monitoring channel explicitly says "Gerbera", "Parodiya" or "decoy"; otherwise the target is shown as a Shahed. Open the map · all threat types · Shahed-136 · jet-powered Shahed

Sources

Updated 10 October 2026.