The first completely Ukrainian FPV drone was assembled in Ukraine

The Vyriy drone company assembled the first sample of an FPV copter from components manufactured in Ukraine.

This was told to "Military" by the company's founder, Oleksiy Babenko.

A private Ukrainian company specializing in the production of attack drones and supplying them to the Defense Forces in series, this month presented a sample of a fully localized 10-inch FPV copter.

Only Ukrainian components were used to assemble it: the frame, which is the platform for the rest of the system elements, motors, propellers, camera, signal transmitter and receiver, as well as the flight controller and speed governor. The latter two were developed by the company and manufactured in Ukraine.

The Vyriy drone team began the path of abandoning imported spare parts back in 2023, guided by the desire to independently produce drones and minimize dependence on Chinese suppliers.

By the middle of this year, they had already achieved a localization level of 70% on their serial drones by replacing first the simplest mechanical parts, and then more complex electronic elements. The main problem until recently remained motors, video signal transmitters, and cameras, the production of which did not exist in the country.

The situation changed this year with the emergence of relevant local manufacturers. The new copter received motors manufactured by Motor-G, a video transmitter from December1, and a thermal imaging camera "Kurbas-256" from Odd Systems.

"Military" reported on the launch of Odd Systems production in October of this year. The company offers an optical module that, thanks to its own software, allows for better realization of the potential of the thermal imaging matrix and meets the specific needs of the military.

The drone still uses some Chinese components, in particular, neodymium magnets, lens-matrix camera blocks and microchips. This is due to the lack of need to replace them or the temporary lack of alternatives. In the case of magnets, China generally has a global monopoly on their production.

In terms of its technical characteristics, the fully localized copter is in no way inferior to its counterparts made from Chinese components. The cost of a single product is about 21,000 hryvnias, but it will be reduced due to mass production.

The developers note that a drone made in Ukraine will always be better than a similar one made of imported components due to its focus on the needs of the military and the speed of making technical changes in the wake of the rapid development of technologies on the battlefield. And the rejection of Chinese suppliers will protect the country from Chinese export restrictions, which will only intensify in the future.

Read more about the cost of "Ukrainized" drones, obstacles to localization of production, and the future of the industry in the article " No China: Ukrainian manufacturers are close to independent production of FPV drones ."