A major drone maker says Ukrainian soldiers surprised it by filling one of its drones with more explosives than the company ever thought it could carry.
When loading an attack drone with explosives, combat units are limited by how much weight they can carry while flying. Batteries, cameras and other essential equipment also take up some of this capacity. That doesn’t stop soldiers from pushing the equipment to its limits.
“One of the most surprising videos I’ve seen recently is that one of the units managed to place the huge explosive part on our drone,” Oleg, a TechEx executive, told Business Insider.
The drone was carrying “something like five or seven kilos, and they managed to fly into the building and put it completely on the ground with just one FPV.”
“I asked myself, ‘How can you literally put that many explosives on one FPV?’ But he managed to continue and fulfilled his mission,” the TechEx official said, speaking on condition that he be identified only by his first name for security reasons.
TechEx lists a maximum payload of two kilograms for three of its NATO-coded fiber optic drones: the Stalker XO-10 China-Free, the Stalker XO-15 MAX PRO, and the Stalker XO-13.
Weight is a major constraint for Ukrainian drone makers, who are constantly trying to integrate more firepower and bigger batteries, as well as heavier weapons and cameras. It’s a constant compromise, where every gram counts.
Soldiers fighting for survival often exceed stated limits. Last year, a sergeant major of a heavy bomber company said Army Inform, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry’s media outlet, says that although a Bat drone can fly up to 8 kilometers and carry up to 12 kilograms, his unit has been pushing it to fly a little further and carry a little more.
Weight is an important consideration for TechEx drone development. The company touts its “ultralight fiber optic spool” as one of its product advantages. Last year, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry called TechEx’s Stalker series a “record spool weight among Ukrainian fiber-optic drones.”
Fiber optic drones must carry their spool of cable, which adds weight. José Colon/Anadolu via Getty Images
The struggle with weight is particularly acute for fiber optic drones because, in addition to equipment such as batteries, they must carry the spool containing the fiber optic cable that trails behind them, thus maintaining a connection with the drone operator. The cable makes them resistant to enemy jamming, but the added weight limits the number of explosives they can carry. The cable spool can weigh several kilos on certain drones.
Olha, a TechEx representative, told Business Insider that the company developed its own technology to reduce the weight of the spool, making “small tweaks and modifications” to how the spool is assembled and where the fiber is wound into it. These adjustments allow the company to keep the spool lightweight while maintaining a stable connection and minimizing the risk of cable breakage during flight.
The company needs a “perfect balance” to ensure reliability and durability, because not all drone pilots have rich flying experience, Oleg said.
The company faces trade-off decisions. For example, extending the range of its fiber-optic drones would require larger spools of cable, potentially leaving less room for explosives, Olha said. But not all drones need a heavy payload. For some, speed and agility matter more.
Ukrainian soldiers often surprise their weapons manufacturers with how they use and adapt their equipment, with troops sometimes repairing and modifying equipment near the front lines and experimenting with new tactics.
Kuldar Väärsi, founder and CEO of Estonian ground robot maker Milrem Robotics, previously told Business Insider that Ukrainian soldiers were using the company’s technology in unexpected ways, including adding and attaching objects to robots. “Ukrainian troops are really creative and find very simple ways to get the most out of their equipment,” he said.
Ukrainian soldiers surprise weapons manufacturers with how they adapt, refine and use their equipment on the battlefield. 2CR
How equipment is used in the field often determines how Ukrainian defense companies update and modify their products. Soldiers provide feedback daily to companies like TechEx, and companies send their own employees into the field to gather feedback and make changes.
Oleg said TechEx constantly receives direct feedback from Soldiers, resulting in weekly changes to its products. Without change, a product in Ukraine “within three months it will be obsolete and no one will use it, because the industry is changing extremely fast,” he said.
TechEx encourages soldier experimentation, notably by manufacturing its drones with interchangeable parts. Soldiers can swap components to repair damaged drones or combine parts to create configurations the company never designed.
“Part of what I think TechEx is really great at is the ability to customize,” Olha said.
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