The New Company Mass-Producing Attack Drones For Ukraine

A new company manufacturing kamikaze racing drones for Ukraine has emerged from stealth mode. One Way Aerospace – the name comes from the Pentagon term ‘one way attack drones’ – has founders including an undisclosed British Royal Air Force veteran James Earl, former Australian combat engineer and investor listed on Forbes 30 under 30 Francisco Serra-Martins, and Roman Antonov, former CTO of Dorini and engineer from Ukraine’s Antonov Design Bureau. The company’s Scalpel attack drones have proved themselves in action (see video below) and now production is being ramped up.

Small FPV (first person view) racing drones are highly effective weapons. Ukraine used the first improvised version last July, and since then hundreds more have been deployed, small, agile craft powerful enough to carry an anti-tank warhead. Russian sources have previously warned that Ukraine is stockpiling numbers of home-made drones for a major assault. One Way Aerospace are expanding their facilities to accelerate the buildup.

“We are establishing a larger factory to scale to several thousand units monthly in Ukraine with the assistance of local authorities,” Francisco Serra-Martins told Forbes.

While the US-supplied Javelin guided anti-tank missiles cost almost $200,000 a shot, the basic Scalpel costs around $1,000. And unlike the Javelin, they can be launched from out of sight of the enemy and can circle around to locate targets and attack their weakest spot. Also unlike other weapons, the Scalpel gives the operator a good view of the target as it approaches, so they can wave off and abort the mission, or engage a secondary target. This type of weapon has much less chance of causing ‘friendly fire’ casualties or ‘collateral damage.’

Serra-Martins says the Scalpel is built around an advanced targeting system with cutting-edge sensors and optics, enabling operators to identify and track targets with high accuracy. This includes terminal homing, so the operator does not need to manually track the target all the way, which is especially useful when jamming is encountered. Scalpel is highly maneuverable, so it can engage targets in hard-to-reach places like urban environments.

“We work very closely with the soldiers on the front line, the products are made to be easily deployed, and we are actively developing new products from their feedback,” says Serra-Martins.

For example, the Scalpel initially carried a warhead of about one kilo – a modified version of the RKG-3 anti-tank grenade – but this was not always enough to destroy heavy tanks, so a new version has been launched which carries a more powerful 2.5 kilo warhead, apparently a modified RPG
RPG
round, thought his is somewhat more expensive.

The Scalpel may look ungainly, with a battery pack slung underneath and a warhead on top, but combat videos shows it attacking Russian entrenchments and swooping in to destroy personnel carriers and even a TOS-1A thermobaric rocket launcher vehicle.

The top speed is over 100 kph/60mph and range is cited as more than ten kilometers (six miles), which is essential to get the enemy from beyond their maximum range.

“The newer T80-U’s and even modernized T-62s have thermal optics for gunner so even at night it’s not safe for SF to move into enemy lines. They can get engaged up to 4km by enemy armor,” says Serra-Martins. The Scalpel can locate Russian tanks from long range and destroy them.

“We have several other products in development,” says Serra-Martins, describing large drones and long-range loitering munitions, more sophisticated versions of the Iranian-made Shared-136s which Russia has been launching against Ukraine.

The contracts with One Way Aerospace appear to be part of Ukraine’s $860m Army of Drones initiative which will equip sixty new drone assault companies with large numbers of loitering munitions, the majority of which will be Ukrainian-built.

While Ukrainians can still build their own artisanal FPV attack drones in workshops or garages, mass-production should ensure a plentiful supply of attack drones. And this is just
just
the start. One Way Aerospace has big plans to ‘reboot the arsenal of democracy,’ providing Ukraine with enough low-cost smart munitions to engage every Russian vehicle and perhaps even every Russian soldier as well as striking targets far beyond the reach of current weapons.