Ukraine Takes On The World’s Leading Drone Maker

Ukraine excels at developing and producing drones. Millions of small FPVs target everything from tanks to individual foot soldiers on the battlefield, while Magura sea drones terrorize the Russian navy and long-range attack drones set Russian refineries ablaze. But building one type of drone has long eluded them: the humble quadcopter, which is still acquired in large numbers from China’s DJI.

Ukraine has finally started deploying locally-made alternatives at scale with the first thousand now delivered to the front line according to Deputy Prime Minister and drone supremo Mykhailo Fedorov.

Why is replicating these so difficult, and so important?

The Indispensable ‘Mavik’

Shenzhen-based DJI have dominated the consumer quadcopter business since they launched their first drone in 2013. Their Mavic series is a world standard. These drones fold up small enough to carry in a cargo pocket, but fly for 45 minutes or more out to at least eight kilometres. What makes them outstanding is the high-quality camera and AI-assisted flight performance, including obstacle avoidance, automated tracking, and return-to home, all for under $2,000.

DJI’s rapid rise essentially forced every US quadcopter maker, including Teal, Skydio and 3D Robotics, out of the consumer markets in the 2010s.

Small quadcopters are essential kit in Ukraine. Portable eyes in the sky provide invaluable intelligence, locate and track Russian forces, direct artillery fire and allow foot soldiers see and strike the enemy first, as well as droppong grenades and other improvised munitions. ‘Mavik’ has become a generic term for small quadcopters The Russians have followed suit and also deploy Mavics at scale. In both armies, troops bought the drones themselves or received them from supporters via the military procurement system.

Analyst Samuel Bendett noted just last week on X/Twitter that the Russians are still highly dependent on DJI Mavics and there is a constant stream of private efforts to raise money for them. One Russian fundraiser claimed that “To go into battle without these drones is to condemn yourself to unnecessary combat losses.”

Ukraine assembles its own FPV quadcopters, but replicating the more sophisticated Mavic is a bigger ask. As one drone expert told me: “DJI has billions in R&D, access to top talent in china and a 15 year head start. It’s impossible to come up with a Mavic alternative that will be equally as good”

There is plenty of motivation. DJI has banned sales to Ukraine, piously claiming its products are not meant for war, so drones must be acquired via third parties. There are obvious security issues. The Pentagon has banned all use of DJI drones, which send data back to the manufacturers. DJI have also added security features making it impossible to fly the latest models in ‘geoblocked’ areas, including Ukraine, without extensive hacks. Finally, sovereign drone production looks like a key strategic capability going forward.

Ukraines Own ‘Maviks’

A variety of Ukraine-made Mavic alternatives are available including the Ukropter, Yautja and the charmingly named Shmavik. These are larger than DJI drones, come with long-range, jam-resistant communications, and are more expensive. But they may prove more cost-effective by being more reliable.

Frontline Robotics say their Zoom reconnaissance drone is built from the ground up to operate in an intense electronic warfare environment.

“From the beginning, we invested heavily in R&D to develop cost-effective, EW-resistant communications, as electronic warfare in the Russia–Ukraine war remains one of the leading causes of drone losses,” a Frontline spokesman told me.

This includes an AI-enabled visual navigation system so the drone can find its way when GPS is jammed, a common occurrence. A fail-safe system means that even if both GPS and the link to the operator are lost, the drone can return to a pick-up point.

The overall cost is somewhat higher than a Mavic, but this is offset by the greater survivability.

“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,” said the spokesman. “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.”

Others are equally confident of the quality of their product.

“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,” says Anastasiia Nevelia of Atlas Aerospace.

Atlas are finding other ways to get ahead of DJI, with a ground station which they believe is significantly superior to Mavic controllers

for military applications. The AltlasUltra has a screen brightness of 2000 nit for visibility even on sunny days, compared with 700 nit for the DJI RC-2. The joysticks have patent pending haptic feedback for more intuitive piloting, and the battery life, robustness and storage capacity are also more geared to the needs of military users in Ukraine than DJI’s consumer products.

But winning over Mavic users will not be easy.

The Challenge Of Loyalty

One problem is that operators have been using DJI Mavics for years now, have become familiar with their quirks, and have built up loyalty to the brand. Another is that, as reviewers constantly observe, DJI make world-beating products and constantly improve them – “the best just keeps getting better” as Techradar observes. The company is a corporate whale which has beaten all competition in the consumer sector, and the Ukrainian makers are minnows by comparison.

Getting people to switch from a maker they trust, in a situation where lives are on the line, will be a long struggle. There is much skepticism about the quality of the alternatives online. Persuading hardened iPhone users to switch to Android might be easier.

A more subtle issue is just how Ukrainian these locally made drones are. Some makers are still reliant on Chinese parts to a significant degree, with components like high-quality cameras difficult to source elsewhere. But Frontline say that only 15% of their parts from China, and increasingly everything can now be sourced in Ukraine.

Until recently, drone motors were imported. Now one Ukrainian maker Motor-G maker is producing over 100,000 per month and rising. Ukraine is now making its own batteries, flight controllers and even low-cost thermal imaging cameras.

As Dr Oleksandra Molloy noted in a study for the Australian Army Research Centre, the importance of sovereign drone production is a vital lesson from the war in Ukraine. Short-range FPVs and long-range strike drones have become major pillars in national defence. Tactical reconnaissance drones will help build complete self-reliance.

Without the urgency of war, other nations have been slower to build up their drone production ecosystems. But they will certainly be looking at how Ukraine has blazed a trail. But is is not an easy one.