WHAT IT IS
Susanin (Russian: «Сусанин») is the published name of a Russian autonomous optical navigation system (автономная оптическая навигационная система, АОНС) fitted to jet attack UAVs. It matches a downward view of the ground against a map strip loaded before launch, and feeds a position fix to the onboard navigator. It does not need GNSS, a radio beacon, or a live operator.
The name is the folk figure Ivan Susanin. First open Russian reporting is 23 September 2026: military correspondent Andrei Filatov, speaking to Gazeta.ru, said the system was on jet Geran and that Ukrainian services were looking for its designer. Rossiyskaya Gazeta (27 September 2026) called it optical trajectory correction and compared it to Otblesk-U («Отблеск-У») on the Kh-101. Ukrainian GUR, early October 2026, described the same function on Geran-4 and Geran-5 K5 as an optoelectronic correlation system.
WHAT IT GUIDES
Published carriers:
Geran-4 — jet Shahed-class, autumn 2026 airframes in GUR component notes.
Geran-5, including the K5 fuselage variant — deep-strike jet, optical correction named in Russian military channels.
No open card puts Susanin on propeller Geran-2, Lancet, or a cruise missile. The cruise-missile analogue already in service is Otblesk-U on Kh-101 (izdeliye 504AP), built around TsNIIAG with Geofizika-NV and Signal in the GUR parts list. Susanin is the UAV-scale cousin, not that box.
HOW IT WORKS
Class is DSMAC — digital scene matching area correlation — the same family as the optical corrector on Tomahawk and on Kh-101.
Before launch, reference images of the route (satellite or aerial strips of road junctions, rivers, field boundaries) are written into onboard memory. In flight a downward optical sensor photographs the underlying surface. A correlator slides the live frame over the stored strip, finds the offset, and writes a position update into the inertial navigator. GNSS, if it is still there, is a convenience. Jamming it does not remove the map.
Two public schedules disagree, and both can be true. Filatov described flight with no radio beacons for the whole route, including the first ~100 km off the line of contact. A later Russian analysis said the correlator is used on the terminal leg, about 20 km from the target. DSMAC on cruise missiles is usually a series of update patches, not a continuous video lock. Night, snow, and long shadows degrade the match; Kh-101 DSMAC is already known to lose accuracy after dark.
WHAT IT DOES NOT DO
Susanin is not a data link. It does not talk to the operator, a mesh modem, or a beacon. The point of the fit is that those paths can be dead. A mesh modem on the same airframe is a separate radio for telemetry or retasking, not part of the correlator.
It is also not the magnetometer. GUR’s autumn 2026 Geran-4 note lists a MOH block built on a PNI Sensor PNI5GA magneto-inductive compass, tied to a SADRA inertial module to slow gyro drift. That is magnetic aiding of the INS. Susanin is the camera-and-map loop beside it.
HARDWARE
No factory stencil, GRAU index, processor, or lens has been published. The minimum set implied by the job:
Downward day camera (optical, not a seeker for the terminal dive).
Memory for the route strip.
A correlator — embedded computer, unpublished.
A feed into the existing INS (SADRA on the GUR Geran-4 card).
A GNSS receiver that can be ignored when jammed.
Otblesk-U’s industrial chain (TsNIIAG, NPO Geofizika-NV, EPO Signal) is the cruise-missile precedent. It is not evidence that those plants build the Geran board.
COMMUNICATIONS
None in flight. Maps are loaded on the ground. After release the airframe can be silent. Operator control, if any, is a different radio and is not required for the Susanin fix.
NOT THESE
Otblesk-U — Kh-101 optical corrector, different airframe.
MOH / PNI5GA — magnetometer aiding SADRA, not a camera.
TERCOM — radar altimeter vs a height map. Not this sensor.
Kometa / GNSS CRPA — anti-jam satellite antenna. Susanin is the path that remains when Kometa loses.
CAVEATS
The name and the job are from war correspondents, a military Telegram channel, and a GUR component note. No brochure, no accuracy figure, no photo of the board. Terminal-only vs whole-route is unresolved. Night performance is unstated.
STATUS
Reported in use from late September 2026 on jet Geran-4 and Geran-5 K5.
IN ONE SENTENCE
Susanin («Сусанин») is the Russian DSMAC-class optical navigator on jet Geran-4 and Geran-5 — a downward camera matched to a preloaded ground strip so the drone can hold a route with GNSS and the operator both gone — not Otblesk-U, and not the PNI magnetometer beside it.