Czech Republic Copies Russian Knyaz Vandal Kamikaze Drone

A Czech volunteer organization, Spark, has reproduced a Russian loitering-type drone and is preparing to deliver it to Ukraine.

According to Idnes, the drone has been named Jan Žižka, in honor of the renowned Czech military commander. The first batch of 200 drones is expected to be deployed to the front line in the near future.

Like the Russian original, the Czech counterpart uses a fiber-optic control system, while also offering the option of radio control.

The prototype for the Czech engineers was the Russian Knyaz Vandal kamikaze drone, which a soldier of the 102nd Territorial Defense Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine had neutralized. In the Czech Republic, the drone was disassembled, thoroughly studied, and subjected to a full reverse-engineering analysis.

“We decided that we would return to the Russians what they send to us,” says Lesia Kopchuk, head of the Spark engineering club.

Within two months, the team used the captured drone as a basis to design, fine-tune, and launch serial production of their own unmanned aerial vehicle.

Almost all components of the drone are marked “made in Czechia”: a green fiberglass airframe, 3D-printed mounts, batteries, and spools of fiber-optic cable up to 25 kilometers long.

Meanwhile, the drone’s final cost is about one-third lower than that of previous models.

A fundraising campaign totaling 15 million Czech korunas is currently nearing completion. This amount will allow Lesia Kopchuk’s team to finance the production of approximately 500 additional drones.

The unexpected success of the fundraising campaign was also supported by certain actions taken by the new Czech government.

“I think Ukraine would manage just fine without the help of the Czech government. But the positive thing is that after every statement by Mačinka, Okamura, or Babiš, money appears in our accounts. We’re happy about that,” Martin Ondráček from the ‘Gift for Putin’ initiative explained.

As previously reported, Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš has definitively rejected the possibility of selling L-159 aircraft to Ukraine, despite statements by military officials.