From Mavic to Shmavik: Ukraine Builds Its Own Eyes in the Sky

Ukraine is challenging global giant DJI by creating its own “sky fighters” to replace Chinese Mavic drones.

The Gaze reports on this, referring to Forbes.

During the war, drones became the eyes of the Ukrainian military, and Mavic drones became an indispensable reconnaissance tool. Despite the fact that the Chinese company DJI has banned the sale of its products to Ukraine, Ukrainian manufacturers are actively developing their own technologies.

The first thousands of locally produced drones have already arrived at the front, including the Ukropter, Yautja, Shmavik, and Zoom models from Frontline Robotics.

Ukrainian drones are more resistant to electronic warfare, have a longer service life, and can operate even without a GPS signal. According to the developers, the cost of a single mission for a Ukrainian drone can be several times lower than for a DJI Mavic, due to its increased reliability.

“For us, the key metric is not the price per drone, but the cost per mission. While a typical Mavic performs around 60 missions per drone, our systems average about 300 missions per unit,” a Frontline Robotics spokesman told Forbes. “At a comparable purchase price, the cost per mission is five times lower, meaning the military units that operate our drones achieve far better overall economics.”

Other companies are just as confident in the quality of their own drones.

“We’ve built a pocketable dual payload reconnaissance drone that replaces Mavic on the market and outperforms it in every way that matters on the battlefield,” said Anastasiia Nevelia of Atlas Aerospace.

At the same time, the Ukrainian industry faces a difficult task — overcoming operators' loyalty to Mavic and reducing dependence on Chinese components.

However, by developing its own production of engines, batteries, and thermal imaging cameras, Ukraine is gradually building a full-fledged ecosystem of drones.

For example, until recently, engines for drones were imported, but now a single Ukrainian manufacturer, Motor-G, produces more than 100,000 units per month. Ukraine also produces its own batteries, flight controllers, and even inexpensive thermal imaging cameras.

In addition to new drone developments as a replacement for the Chinese Mavic, Ukraine has become the first country to use swarms of drones with artificial intelligence elements on the battlefield — a real breakthrough in military technology. The Ukrainian software Swarmer enables drones to coordinate their actions, adapt to changes during a mission, and perform tasks with minimal human involvement. Now, a single operator can control several devices at once, which significantly increases the efficiency of operations.

Ukraine is currently preparing for large-scale tests with a hundred drones in a single swarm, confirming its leadership in the field of unmanned systems.

Read more on The Gaze: How Ukrainian Air Defense Learned to Shoot Down Drones Using Neural Networks