Shahed-131 / Shahed-238 family

Record

Conflict relevance

This is the catalogue's single record for this system. It is relevant to the module below; each module's Force Atlas shows how it is used there.

Operators

Iran and the Gulf: The Aerospace Force's smaller one-way attack airframe beside the Shahed-136, and the jet-powered variant shown in 2023. Which types made up the salvos fired at the Gulf states and Israel in 2026 is not stated by the sources, so employment is carried at family level. · Ansar Allah (Houthi movement): A smaller Shahed-type airframe is reported in Houthi use under a local name; the extent of supply as against local assembly is disputed.

Battlefield role

Mass one-way attack at shorter range than the Shahed-136, and, in the jet-powered variant, a faster airframe that compresses the defender's engagement window.

Strengths

Cheap, launched in numbers beside the Shahed-136, and produced on a base that has been easier to disperse than missile manufacturing; the jet-powered variant trades endurance for speed.

Limitations

Slow and individually easy to intercept in the propeller-driven form; the jet-powered variant is reported in far smaller numbers and its combat use is not established. No inventory, production figure, launch unit or count is recorded, and which variants were fired in the 2026 war is not established by the sources.

Campaign relevance

Derived: a participant organisation in these campaigns carries a typed equipment association with this system. That is not the same as documented use of the system in the campaign itself.

• The Saudi–Houthi Red Sea front, 2026 round Since 13 July 2026

  via Houthi missile and drone forces (Reported, low confidence)

• The Houthi campaign against Red Sea shipping, 2023–2025 November 2023 – October 2025

  via Houthi missile and drone forces (Reported, low confidence)

Documented conflict use

The Shahed-131 is documented in Russia's campaign against Ukraine alongside the Shahed-136, and in Houthi derivative form against Saudi Arabia and shipping. Its use in the 2026 Gulf war sits inside the aggregate of more than 6,700 drones and missiles the Congressional Research Service records as fired at the six Gulf states, which is not attributed by type.

Reported & historical formation associations

• Houthi missile and drone forces Reported · low confidence

  A smaller Shahed-type airframe reported in Houthi use under a local name; the extent of supply as against local assembly is disputed.

• IRGC Aerospace Force UAV command Reported · moderate confidence

  The smaller and the jet-powered members of the one-way attack family. The 2026 salvos are counted as an aggregate of drones and missiles, not by type, so the edge says the component holds the family, not that a given variant was fired.