Estonia's KrattWorks Builds a Shahed Stand-In
A new aerial target drone will let air-defense crews train against jet-powered Shahed-type threats — the same ones Ukraine struggles to intercept.
By The Defense Desk
Estonian drone maker KrattWorks is developing an aerial target drone designed to replicate the behavior of jet-powered Shahed-type UAVs — giving air-defense crews a realistic training target that mirrors the weapon Russia deploys by the thousands. [1]
The scale of the problem makes the product timely. In August alone, the Russian military used an estimated 5,166 Shahed-type drones, including decoys, against Ukrainian targets, according to the Institute for Science and International Security's September 2026 report. Ukraine's overall shoot-down rate sits at 70%, but for jet-powered Shaheds specifically, that figure drops to 57% — a gap the Office of the President of Ukraine called out in a statement: 'But for jet-powered Shaheds, unfortunately, the rate is much lower than it needs to be – 57%.' The office added: 'We are pushing the developers to move faster.' [1]
KrattWorks, whose Ghost Dragon ISR systems have been deployed in Estonia, Georgia, and Moldova, already sells aerial targets including the DART-R — a radar-reflector-equipped decoy capable of 200 km/h — and the PARM quadcopter. The new Shahed-mimicking dummy sits a tier above. Business development manager Ranno Pajuri told Defense News the drone is expected to be presented by the end of 2027, adding: 'We need to obtain a working prototype that is reliable enough.' [1]
The company is pitching the project at the AUSA conference in Washington while simultaneously pursuing customers in Asia and Africa. It says Estonian production capacity can scale with demand, and that some transfer of production is possible if a market is large enough. [1]
The broader push across European defense firms to build interceptors cheaper than their targets — and to train crews against threats that match today's battlefield — makes realistic aerial targets less a niche product and more an infrastructure requirement.
Ukraine is already a potential customer. KrattWorks has supplied the Ukrainian Army with one-way attack drones and ISR platforms, and it studies evolving UAV tactics from that conflict directly to sharpen its products. [1]