Ukraine

Officials in Ukraine have made a series of announcements on plans to dramatically increase drone production in the nation’s effort to drive out invading Russian forces, including a pledge to manufacture over a million first-person view (FPV) craft for attack and reconnaissance missions.

Reports that Russia‘s armed forces are starting to claw away at the specific aerial advantage Ukraine has long held with its production and skilled use of small drones took on a significant footnote this month. The qualifier designates what’s described as the mass manufactured, inexpensive AQ 400 Scythe loitering munition – a UAV capable of 750-kilometer flights deep into occupied Crimea or Russia’s heartland, and created to shift the momentum of the war in Kyiv’s favor.

Ascendant drone tech company Quantum-Systems is extending its involvement with Ukraine – and the nation’s defense against invading Russian forces – with the establishment of a research and development center in the country’s tech incubator initiative, according to the Ministry of Digital Transformation in Kyiv.

Authorities in Finland are holding suspects believed to have exported millions of dollars worth of drones and counter-UAV components to Russia, in violation of sanctions imposed by the European Union and the US over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

Fast-moving California defense startup Anduril has announced the release of a new type of aircraft called Roadrunner, which is situated somewhere between a drone and missile and designed to address the kind of military and economic dilemmas that cash-strapped countries like Ukraine face in responding to aerial attacks.

It’s the day after Thanksgiving, things are slow, and everyone is feeling a bit sluggish. That’s the excuse for this post, featuring another Russian soldier caught out by drone pilots in the wrong place – their Ukraine homeless – at the excruciatingly wrong time. Or in other words, herewith another video of a UAV dropping an explosive load on a Russki soldat doing number two – this one a form aerial bathroom humor decidedly short on the yucks.

Ukraine has demonstrated what appears to be the first fruits of its stated determination to increase domestic drone production, with the announcement it has sent over 2,000 nationally manufactured UAVs to its defense forces, along with 3,000 first-person view craft (FPV).

Were there any doubt remaining about how the war in Ukraine has transformed the way drones are deployed – and how manufacturers now view military applications as the most lucrative area in the sector – Airbus provided compelling evidence by founding a new US unit dedicated to creating UAVs designed for martial applications in the bustling business activity.

Though Ukraine has gained well deserved admiration for its innovative and potent deployment of repurposed commercial and enterprise drones ­– as well as craft created exclusively for military use – its fighters may now be losing their aerial advantage as Russia shows its own capabilities with adapted UAVs.

As part of the effort to strengthen its domestic UAV production for defensive deployment against Russia’s continuing invasion, Ukraine is testing a drone specially developed to accelerate and improve the detection and elimination of deadly landmines.

In their overlapping efforts to defeat Russia’s invading army while increasingly relying on domestic production of materials to obtain that objective, officials from Ukraine have said they’ll rapidly augment the number of drones the nation manufactures to tens of thousands per month.

Its reputation resplendent in large part due to the critical performance of its tech in service of Ukraine’s defense against invading Russian forces, German drone and robotics company Quantum-Systems has completed an eye-opening €63.6 million ($66.8 million) Series B funding round, pushing its total financing beyond the €100 million ($106 million) threshold.

Defense and security UAV specialist Teledyne FLIR Defense has unveiled the upgraded fourth-generation model of its highly touted Black Hornet drone, an aerial asset that has proven vital in surveillance and intelligence gathering work for Ukraine defense forces, among others.

With Ukraine battling dozens of incoming, explosive-packed Russian drones assaulting its cities every night, one additional concern in shooting those craft down is the considerable cost to the nation’s financially strapped defense reserves that involves – a pinch an Australian counter-UAV tech producer is now acting to solve.

In what may rank as one of the most “no kidding” cases of creativity, determination, and inspiration being given its rightful due, Australian UAV company SYPAQ Systems has been awarded the country’s 2023 tech innovation award, based in large part to the major benefits its cardboard-made drones have afforded Ukraine’s defensive efforts.

Though additional evidence wasn’t needed as confirmation, the nocturnal barrage of strikes on multiple areas inside Russia overnight Wednesday was another clear reminder of the extent to which Ukraine relies on military and adapted enterprise and consumer drones to successfully battle against Moscow’s invasion.

Producers of specialized drones or craft with effective tech adaptable to defense purposes may be in for a boost in activity under the Pentagon’s new “Replicator” initiative, which seeks to supplement the traditionally huge, multi-year US defense programs by creating an array of fast, responsive “attritable autonomous systems” – with an anticipated emphasis on quickly manufactured UAVs.

Ukraine will be getting reinforcements to its broadening patchwork of counter-drone assets with the delivery of Cortex Typhon systems from Norway’s Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace, estimated to be worth around £56 million ($70 million).

Events this week in Ukraine have demonstrated the nation’s increasing commitment to small, quasi-consumer-grade first-person view drones (FPV) as vital assets in the nation’s battle to defeat invading Russian forces.

New moves unveiled by China threaten to further disrupt the already complicated business activities of global drone leader DJI in the US and elsewhere in the world, with Beijing saying it will impose new export restrictions on UAV technologies produced in the country.

The US Agency for International Development (USAID) says it has delivered nine drones to the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine to collect evidence of possible war crimes. As an independent agency of the US federal government, USAID has been pursuing accountability for war crimes and human rights abuse in Ukraine since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of the country.