By Galina Korol | 2025-04-01

KYIV -- The Russia-Ukraine war has become not only a site for real-world tests of the world's military equipment but also a place seeing unmatched developments in drone systems.

For example, Ukraine has created a carrier drone that can carry up to six first-person view (FPV) drones and that functions as a relay for communication between the operator and the FPV drones.

"After they're dropped from the carrier, FPV drones strike enemy electronic warfare systems, air defense systems, command centers and manpower at a distance they would not be able to reach independently," Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister for Innovation, Education, Science and Technology wrote March 11 on Telegram.

These types of drones are already serving on the front, and they have become indispensable to Ukrainian service members, he said.

"They carry out missions with maximum accuracy while the operator is at a safe distance," Fedorov said.

A developer from Brave1 -- the Ukrainian company Autonomous Engineering R&D Ukraine -- made the carrier drone, which is strengthening the front and saving the lives of Ukrainian troops, he added.

How the 'mother drone' works

The main task of this drone is to safeguard soldiers' lives and to expand the "gray zone," said Konstantin Krivolap, an aviation analyst and former test engineer at Ukraine's Antonov aircraft company.

"In other words, it's to make sure that Russian assault units can't reach the trench where our guys are -- not on foot, not in tanks, not in armored personnel carriers, not in these heaps, because recently they've been trying to come even in ATVs [all-terrain vehicles]," Krivolap told Kontur.

The drone he calls the "mother drone" makes it possible to strike in places where it was previously impossible to do so because it extends the range of FPV drones.

"Initially a typical FPV drone had a range of 3-5km, then that increased to 5-10km, and consequently the distance of this gray zone increased," Krivolap explained.

"When the range got to 15-20km, the Russians deployed electronic warfare and everything else. Somewhere around a distance starting from 25km, communication problems [for Ukrainian forces] set in."

"The best option is to ascend high and use this huge, powerful drone -- this 'mother drone' -- as a carrier and communication relay," Krivolap said.

The carrier drone hangs in the sky, becoming a sort of "server in the air," and the FPV drones fly out of it, dispersing to predetermined targets.

"This 'mother drone' flies to a spot where it can hover -- say, 20km from the line of contact -- and then the small drone can go another 15-20km," Krivolap said.

This innovation extends the range of the FPV drones to at least 40km.

Three years ago, drones were considered a backup tool. Now they are the foundation of combat and are actually replacing artillery for the Ukrainians, said Krivolap.

"Now 85% of the strikes on the battlefield are by drones," he said.

Ukrainians developed the majority of these drones.

"Drones didn't come onto the scene because the government created innovation programs or developed and produced drones or what have you," Krivolap said. "This happened because our [people] are smart and creative, and without having any resources, they imagined how to make something out of nothing."

Drone 'snake' that withstands mines

The war that Russia started presented many challenges for Ukraine. One of them was land mines.

But this is another area where Ukrainians have made a breakthrough: they created a mine-clearing ground drone.

"There's nothing else like it," said Borys Drozhak, an artificial intelligence inventor who serves as director of engineering at DataRobot and co-invented the Zmiy (snake) remote mine-clearing system.

"A long time ago, there were attempts to create lightweight mine-clearing drones, but they didn't succeed. But they were made differently, and we were able to make something unique that didn't exist before," he told Kontur.

"Mine clearing itself was very expensive. We studied the market and made a product that is significantly changing the pace and cost of mine clearance, and its quality," he said.

It all started with a request that came directly from the front. A Ukrainian sapper with the call sign Boroda was looking for a solution that would help him safely clear mined territory.

"He needed a vehicle for mine clearing that would mow grass so the clearing process wouldn't be cumbersome and he wouldn't be risking his life," Drozhak said.

"We spent a lot of time on it. We typically ended up driving around after every test. We spent long car rides talking and brainstorming. We would even bring a mine with us and take it apart and study it," he said.

After 12 attempts, the engineers created their distinctive mine-clearing drone.

The remote-controlled ground drone platform can operate when there is low and medium-height vegetation and can neutralize antipersonnel mines, antitank mines and tripwires.

'Buddy' on the frontline

Remarkably, the Zmiy drone can withstand the detonation of an antitank mine.

A video Drozhak shared with Kontur shows a mighty explosion under the Zmiy, after which the witnesses thought the drone was done for. But a second later it resumes moving as if nothing had happened.

"It's working. Whoa! Amazing!" off-screen voices can be heard saying excitedly in the video.

"The service members call all the Zmiys 'buddy' and worry about it like it's a person and don't want anything to happen to it," Drozhak said.

This is because in addition to helping, the drone safeguards human lives.

"We made this for only one person, but it turned out there's a big need for this on the front," Drozhak said.

Soon afterward, Drozhak and his team had to address a terrain problem.

"There was a situation where the majority of the robots stalled when they came to marshland, and we were asked to modify the mine clearing drone," Drozhak said. "We had already created a [drone] called a class 3 armored logistics vehicle."

The engineers modified the vehicle to be swamp-worthy. Initially designed as backup for sappers, it became a full-fledged innovative solution that costs between $14,500 and $20,000 [€13,434 and €18,530] depending on the version.

"There is work to do," Drozhak said. "We have interesting solutions that at the moment revolve around ground drones, of course. But they are indeed needed now for the troops."