The 'housewives' did well -- Ukraine takes drone know-how abroad / Photo: © AFP/File
The 'housewives' did well -- Ukraine takes drone know-how abroad
Like something straight out of a spy movie, lots of cloak and dagger was required before AFP could meet three Ukrainian drone manufacturers on the fringes of a hush-hush defence forum in Paris earlier this month.
A rendezvous was set up on a bench near the Champs-Elysees, and a hint of Russian being spoken nearby prompted a quick change of hotel lounge at another interview.
The expertise Ukraine has honed with machines that have transformed the battlefield and left European armies trailing in their technological wake, is highly sought after, with their impact proved again in the Middle East war.
"When I talk to Europeans or Americans, they know very little" about these drones, said Olexandr, an engineer producing Ukraine's "largest strike drone", the Perun Max.
"We want to see how countries that have supported us, such as France, can benefit from our experience," he added.
Made at secret locations across Ukraine by Bavovna, the Perun Max can carry "three projectiles, drop them on targets, return, reload and take off again," making up to 30 sorties a night, he said.
The drone can transport loads of 32 kilos over 25 kilometres (15 miles) -- food, water and medicine for soldiers in the trenches -- or leaflets telling people "how to surrender properly and stay alive" in areas where the Russians are advancing.
Bavovna makes 1,000 drones per month, costing between 7,000 and 20,000 euros.
And the system can switch from GPS to optical navigation, flying with the antenna cut off for up to 20 kilometres.
- Two battalions 'neutralised' -
Skyfall -- whose name is a nod to the Bond film -- also began life when Russia invaded in 2022 and four engineers met up in a garage to build a drone capable of monitoring activity over Kyiv.
They soon decided to add a "dropping" capability, creating Vampire, which bombs, lays mines remotely and transports blood or generators.
Vampire reportedly took part in NATO exercises in May 2025 in Estonia, during which 10 Ukrainian drone operators "neutralised" 17 armoured vehicles and two enemy battalions, the Wall Street Journal said.
The "drone sky" renders the battlefield transparent, where men and armoured vehicles become targets as soon as they venture into no man's land, French military officials and experts said.
"A French unit deployed today on the Ukrainian front against the Russian army would get thoroughly hammered. We must follow the Ukrainian army's example if we want to stay in the game," said Colonel Michel Goya, a former French marine officer and modern conflict analyst.
France is set to reassign 5,000 of 77,000 ground force troops to drone-related activities.
Faced with mass-produced products which are "designed to wear down our capabilities... we need systems which are just as massive, inexpensive, and easy to produce," said General Bruno Baratz, hinting some in the French military hierarchy are reluctant to make the leap.
Bastien Mancini, CEO of French drone manufacturer Delair set up a firm in Ukraine and now supplies drones to the French military.
"Three years ago our drones were being shot down by Russian missiles that cost much more; today they are being shot down by much cheaper systems," he told AFP.
- 'Intelligent machine gun' -
Shrike, another small FPV drone from Skyfall piloted via an onboard camera, costs just $500. Its makers boast it was the first to "shoot down a $10 million (Russian) Mi-8 helicopter in mid-flight."
"These drones have destroyed enemy equipment worth several billion. We can produce over a million of them a year," a Skyfall spokesman claimed.
A third model, the P1-Sun interceptor nicknamed Pisiun (penis), "has already destroyed some 2,500 (Iranian-designed) Shaheds and 1,500 other aerial targets," he added.
"The priority remains the defence of Ukraine," he insisted, which is why Kyiv must approve any international link-ups.
But "it would be good if the whole world saw that Ukrainian solutions don't just work in Ukraine."
The Khyzhak (Predator) system, equipped with a 7.62 mm machine gun, was first developed by Ukraine's UGV Robotics for the Magura naval surface drones which have sunk or damaged several Russian warships in the Black Sea.
The idea of "turning a simple machine gun into a smart weapon" has now been extended to shooting down drones in flight," said Dmytro Burakov of UGV.
"We've installed the system on Mi-8 and Airbus helicopters and that's how we're now shooting down Shaheds," he said.
After talking to AFP, he rushed off to a meeting with Airbus Helicopters, who are developing their own more sophisticated drones, with some 30 planned for this year and twice that number by 2027.
The CEO of German tank giant Rheinmetall sparked a row last month by taking a pop at Kyiv's drones, saying they were being made by "Ukrainian housewives" -- though Armin Papperger later walked back the remarks.
"If Ukrainian drones made by housewives are destroying tanks, then the era of housewives is here," quipped the Skyfall spokesman, further proof of how the old defence industry is rattled.
(L.Møller--DTZ)
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