Ukraine is Testing Virtus Attack Drone From German Company Stark Defence

The German company Stark Defence is testing the Virtus vertical takeoff and landing attack drone in Ukraine in combat conditions.

A representative of the company told Militarnyi about this at the Brave1 Demo Day, in which Stark-Defence participated.

For the Virtus drone, this is the first test at a distance of 40 km using the airborne transponder.

“This will be our first test for such a long distance. It’s still a mock-up, but it’s already in the final phase. We are actively flying, actively testing homing, and today we took advantage of this cool event. We are very grateful to Brave1 for bringing everyone together and providing the infrastructure to test this,” a company representative said.

The drone’s readiness is 96-98%. The drone can carry a 5 kg warhead over a distance of up to 100 km.

“The 5 kg warhead is made in Ukraine, it can be in different configurations: high-explosive, fragmentation, fragmentation-cum-accumulative – it will depend on the task. Units will be able to use the one they need,” said the company representative.

The Stark-Defence website states that the drone’s cruising speed is 120 km/h, and during dives it accelerates to 250 km/h. It can hit both static and moving targets. The batteries provide a working time of up to an hour.

The drone uses a homing system developed by Stark-Defence.

“As you can see, the drone is quite unique, it’s a VTOL, an X-wing, so we do the homing ourselves, because there are peculiarities of the aerodynamic scheme, how it flies, what its speed is,” a company representative said.

The Virtus homing system is based on artificial intelligence and responds in real time to environmental changes.

Virtus is an unmanned system, so users receive a ground control station, a multi-directional antenna, or tracker antenna, laptops, and drones. Their number can vary from three to five.

The drone can not only take off vertically but also land. This allows it to be reused if the target is not found.

Virtus was tested during the second stage of Brave1 Demo Day to find a wing-type attack drone that could be used with an airborne transponder.

For security reasons, the details of this particular configuration are not disclosed. The search for such a solution is a request from representatives of the Ukrainian Defense Forces.

Brave1 tests

As for the tests themselves, it is a search for a kamikaze drone that can hit targets at a distance of 40+ km and uses an airborne repeater. The report from the first Demo Day is available here.

Brave1 noted that after the first stage of testing, there were already manufacturers who were integrating with each other to meet the specified conditions. And the results show that it was a properly phrased task that will allow fulfilling the military’s request.

“This inspires some optimism that the aircraft and all peripheral equipment will be less time-consuming to work on in the workshops and the products will be ready for effective integrated use right out of the packaging,” said a Brave1 representative.

In addition, he noted that the requirements are not a hypothesis, as there are units that independently finalized the complex and used them effectively.

Only drones that clearly meet the requirements will be allowed to participate in the third stage of testing. All of them are not publicly named, but the main ones are a distance of 40+ km and the use of an airborne repeater.

After all the stages of testing, the military will receive a list of manufacturers with the required characteristics, and Brave1 will also facilitate interaction between the military and manufacturers.