Foam drone, jet interceptor drone and “Vampire”: developers presented defense innovations in Kyiv

Brave1 held the first international investment summit Defense Tech Valley dedicated to Ukrainian defense innovations. The summit was attended by more than 650 Ukrainian and international developers from more than 250 teams, UNN reports . 

The first day of the summit began with a pitching session where 28 teams presented innovative solutions in the field of defense technology: from UAVs and AI targeting to robotic systems and artillery detection systems. The summit focused on UAVs, ground robotic systems, and electronic warfare. Representatives of the Ministry of Digital Transformation and the Ministry of Strategic Industries emphasized the importance of government support for defense innovation.

UNN talked to some representatives of the developers.

Night bomber drone "VAMPIRE"

A representative of the company that makes bomber jackets "VAMPIRE" (Vampire) told UNN that "VAMPIRE" is a night bomber drone of Ukrainian production. It can fly 15 kilometers and carry a weight of 15 kilograms. 

"He usually works at night. It is widely represented in the Armed Forces. More than 100 combat units use it. This bomber is usually used to work on enemy forces, dugouts, trenches. The drone flies in, drops bombs and returns," the representative said.  

The second possible aspect of its use is remote mining. 

"For example, if a unit knows that an enemy offensive will take place in the morning or at night, then this drone will fly in and mine the territory. Russian armored vehicles launch an offensive, run over mines, and explode. The third option is  humanitarian missions. These drones deliver water, ammunition, food, medicine, and the like to the front line. For example, we know of cases when generators were worn with this drone," said a representative of the development company. 

He also noted that as of now, the company can in principle  produce up to 4 thousand VAMPIRE units per month. Although now it produces less.  orders come from both private entities and the state.

"Private funds were allocated for the development and production of the first drones, and now the state purchases these drones, but charitable foundations, other private companies, civil-military administrations, military units, etc. also buy them. The cost of the complex is much less than a million hryvnias. The complex includes one board, six batteries, a remote control, a remote station, all antennas, amplifiers, and cables. The board is fully ready to work with three sets of batteries. The VAMPIRE night bomber is the cheapest in its class," said the company representative.

Robotic platform "Tank"

Oleksiy Rudnev, the owner of FIREBOX LLC, a company engaged in the development and production of the tank, told a UNN journalist that the main function of the tank is  logistics, delivery of BCs and provisions to the first line, to "zero." 

"The second function is modularity, in the sense that many people buy it and install turrets, and with these turrets they already replace a person, because the machine gunner is the first person that FPVs hunt," Rudnev explained. 

Also, according to him, the platform is capable of performing the function of mine clearance, anti-personnel mines can pass. 

Rudnev added that another function is the ability to drop mines. The minoskidach is designed for 15 mines, which have already been pre-designed and are ready to be manufactured. 

"What makes our platform different from the rest. Firstly, it is a crawler, it is made by us, designed entirely by us. No one else has it. What is its advantage? The fact that it goes through marshland very well. Or if it freezes, it doesn't jam the engines either. And we designed our own control boards that are not jammed by EW. It can be remotely controlled up to 5 kilometers away," Rudnev said. 

According to him, the Tanchik robotic platform  has already been codified, has been approved for operation and is being used at the front. 

The cost of" Tanchik " is 8,5 thousand dollars (310-350 thousand UAH).

"We have a capacity of 20 units per month. Now we are working out of necessity. The request is relevant, especially for turrets and minoskidach," Rudnev said. 

Dragonfly drone

A representative of TAF DRONES said that the effective range of the dragonfly drone is 110 kilometers and weighs about 4 kilograms. 

"These are still prototypes, that is, we do not sell a lot of them yet, but we plan to do it already. They performed very well at the front, tested them together with the soldiers. One of the planes flew for more than a year in the Kharkiv direction, never fell or was shot down. Why? Because it is foam, which means that it is very poorly exfoliated by any means that are available," said a representative of the company. 

According to him," babka " has a low cost, the basic equipment is somewhere around 5 thousand dollars for an airplane, and for the entire system, which consists of two aircraft and a ground station – about 20 thousand dollars. But this is the basic configuration, which can be changed and supplemented. 

"It (the Dragonfly drone - ED.) has not yet passed the test. We first conduct our own tests together with the fighters, and then we will certify them. We are almost going through this process,"  - said a representative of the developer company. 

The final cost of the" Dragonfly " will depend on the demand for this model. The company says that it is ready to scale production quite quickly.

He noted that TAF DRONES is primarily engaged in the production of FPV kamikaze drones "Hummingbird".  

"Our drones are quite popular in the Ukrainian market. We are one of the largest manufacturers of FPV kamikaze drones "Hummingbird". "Hummingbirds" are standardized and codified according to the standards of NATO and the Ministry of defense, so today we produce about 40 thousand drones per month. These are mainly government contracts," the company's representative said. 

Highline-T drone

A representative of Hueless told UNN that the main advantage of the Highline-T copter is that it is in the air 24/7. 

"It is powered by a cable, hangs at an altitude of 100 meters. Accordingly, it can perform two main functions: relay communications for drones, for ground - based robotic platforms, for another type of tactical communication, as well as 24/7 surveillance.  

According to him, the big advantage is that the drone can work without GPS at all, it has optical navigation. 

"In this copter, we will use only one spare part from China – this is a cable, which we can also in principle replace with a German one or an analog from the United States, but as of now like this, that is, almost completely without Chinese components. We have passed codification, certification, and are working with Brave1," the company's representative said. 

He also noted that the fourth iteration of Highline-T presented at the exhibition has not yet passed combat tests, and factory tests are still ongoing.

"Our third iteration of the product was tested in the Limansky direction, in the Zaporozhye direction. I would not say that all of them were successful, but they were all test cases that allowed us to make the number of changes that we believe were necessary for this copter to now be  absolutely adapted to the conditions of Modern Warfare. This fourth iteration is planned to be scaled up and put into mass production," said a Hueless representative. 

He noticed that the Highline-T copter has no remote control. Everything is done via cable. Therefore, it is fully EW-resistant, fully radio-visible on the air. 

The estimated cost of this complex starts at 35 thousand dollars. 

"In any case, we will produce (these drones – ed.), there will be investors, there will not be, because we need to understand that our main leitmotif is to create a product, give it to the military. And how we will find these funds, whether we will find them, is already our problem. In the end, we should reach a capacity of 200 units per year in 2025," a developer representative said. 

Bullet jet interceptor drone

Legal representative Oleksandr Kozachenko told a UNN journalist that the Bullet drone  can intercept drones, such as the Orlan. 

"Why was the jet model used? Because it can track targets, it can intercept targets, it can choose which priority target to shoot down, and it can be launched up to 10 of them. This is much cheaper  than shooting down drones with missiles, with Petriots," Oleksandr said. 

He noted that the purpose of this development is to save missiles and shoot down drones. 

The range of the domestic drone is 100 km. The cost of Bullet at the moment is 27 thousand dollars.

"The company has developed 10 devices. It has not yet been used in combat conditions. It is currently undergoing flight tests, still at the stage of finding an approach to performing missions. We want to raise funds so that we can already establish mass production," Kozachenko said. 

He also noted that Bullet is already used in as close to combat conditions as possible. 

"We have made the final project, which we can already present for production. That is, we are happy with it, it is already fully working, this is the second model. And we plan to make a stratospheric aircraft that will control all this almost automatically," the company's representative said, adding that such an aircraft is still under development. 

The bullet drone has two sizes for different objects.

"A different warhead has been laid down. They differ in that they can shoot down different targets. If it's just a scout, then it can be a small drone, if it's a Shahed, then it can be a jet drone that will perform tasks much faster, "Kozachenko explained.

According to him, the production of the drone was fully funded by DEGREE-TRANS. 

"We are now looking for investors who will be able to do this, so to speak, as large – scale as possible, because we know the line (production - ed.), we know exactly what parts are needed, we have adjusted everything and are already ready to raise funds," he said. 

Kamikaze River drone "Black Widow"

Dmitry , co - founder of Hardcat, told UNN that the Black Widow is a kamikaze River drone that can be used both to destroy the enemy and for surveillance.

"The main goals are the destruction of small motorboats in the south of Ukraine, in the Kherson region on the Dnieper. It can also be used for observation and transportation of small loads. And on the basis of this model, we are currently developing anchor mines on rivers," Dmitry said.   

The cost of the basic Black Widow model is $1200, and then it depends on the configuration. 

The drone has already passed field tests and will soon be conducted combat tests and applications. 

"Now we have applied for a grant for Brave1. Brave1 generally helps us a lot. We are also looking for investors. We passed the Defense Builder Accelerator program... There are exits for investors. People are ready to invest in US," Dmitry said.

He noted that so far three prototypes have been made. 

"In general, we plan to produce up to a thousand pieces per month," said a representative of the developer.