The Ukrainian army uses unusual “invisible” drones against the Russians

Photo: defensenews.com

Ukraine's defense forces received from Australia more than 600 cardboard Corvo SYPAQ drones, which they used to attack the airfield near Kursk and for reconnaissance using GoPro cameras attached to the holes punched in the UAV body. DefenseNews writes about it.

SYPAQ created the Corvo Precision Payload Delivery System in 2018 in response to the Australian Army's innovative task of creating a stealthy and low-cost drone to deliver resupply cargo to remote operators.

"Actually, it is designed to deliver a package of donor blood", – explained SYPAQ CEO Michael Partridge.

According to him, the company decided to use cardboard, which is cheap and invisible to enemy radar systems.

The drone has a two-meter wingspan with minimal avionics and a motor module, and a payload bay with a lid that lifts up so the recipient can retrieve a blood pack, spare parts, ammo, radio, or whatever sent to him. The drone, which is initially a flat sheet of cardboard and is folded, taking the desired shape, can then be thrown into the field.

"We concluded an agreement and delivered a little more than 600 boards to Ukraine, and they use them quite effectively”, he added.

Partridge also noted that the intensive use of drones by the Ukrainians for more complex missions provided important information that the company uses to improve the mission planning system, user interface and ground control station for the entire Corvo family of drones.

"Ukrainians use it in a certain way. The most effective way we've heard is to literally cut holes in the bottom and set a GoPro on a 10-second timer to shoot a short video when the drones reach a turn point pre-programmed into their GPS. This makes it even more difficult to detect drones because there is no data link that transmits video or receives navigation instructions,'' Partridge said.

According to him, although as a result of improvements, elements of the controlling software may change, the cardboard structure will remain. So when you're talking about improvements, it's going to be very difficult to find something at a lower cost that's just as effective.” – he said, adding that the cardboard material can fly even in light rain and in a humid marine environment without breaking down.

The Corvo PPDS is difficult to detect by radars, and in flight mode on a given trajectory – it is impossible to be suppressed by an EW, while it can cover more than 100 km, carry + 3 kg of load, and also land within a radius of about two meters from a given point.

Three weeks ago, the company released a heavy version with a large swing wings and carrying capacity of 6 kilograms. And two weeks ago, the company presented variants of quadcopters that resemble Chinese-made DJI drones, which the United States and Australia have banned from using in their armed forces.

Prepared by Serhii Daga