Ukrainian manufacturer of FPV-drones “Vyriy drone” began serial production of strike drones with a targeting system.

Oleksii Babenko, the company’s CEO, shared this with Army TV live.

According to him, the company recently launched serial production of FPV drones with a thermal imager and a “machine vision” system. It is expected that by the end of the month, they will release several thousand devices.

As for the complexity of production, he noted that the main limiting factor for the production of these drones is the supply of components.

Oleksiy Babenko explained that the homing system, or “machine vision,” is just an add-on for conventional FPV drones. It allows to automatically capture the target and hit it without pilot intervention, which should significantly increase the efficiency of the application and help to bypass enemy electronic warfare systems.

He noted that one of the system’s most difficult elements is the capture of disguised equipment and infantry:

“Let’s start with the target lock-on. It is very difficult to locate a green tank in a green field for both man and artificial intelligence. Not in the least due to the FPV drone’s poor camera. Therefore, we did it simply: we put a thermal imager and started looking for a white point on a black background, which made the task easier at times.”

Another problem was the development of autopilot because for copters it turned out to be more difficult than for drones of aircraft type. However, the developers managed to solve this problem.

Privacy and security

According to company representatives, Vyriy Drone’s facilities are decentralized throughout Ukraine, so the risk of an attack drone or cruise missile will not threaten to disrupt supplies. In addition, the company tries to locate its units in cities best protected by air defense systems.

Oleksii Babenko also addressed the issue of the risks of technology theft by the Russian invaders:

“We had a delay in launching production due to the development of the security system because we want to do it in such a way that it is almost impossible to get valuable software. To steal it, the Russians need to capture our ground control station, our drone, and our laboratory. We need decryptors to decode everything. It is easier to make their own guidance system than to decrypt ours.”

Oleksii also sees no need to conceal the companies’ intentions to switch to other drone control frequencies, as the Russians usually find out about it quickly, and such secrecy only harms Ukraine in the future.