When they first came across each other, the potential for collaboration was obvious. One team was trialing a remote controlled ground drone that looked like a miniature tank. Next to them on the military training area, a different team were test firing a remote controlled machine gun, developed with the help of a Ukrainian sniper. Neither group had met before. Both immediately realized that they could mount the gun system on the ground drone.
A month later they met once again on a military training area to take their vision to the next stage. An engineer from each team began bashing, screwing, and coaxing the bolts into place until the remote control gun was mounted on the ground drone. On a nearby bench, two young men sat looking intently into the video screens of remote control devices controlling the drone and the gun. Behind them were a pair of Ukrainian soldiers, meeting for the first time, whose experiences on the front lines of the war with Russia had inspired both inventions. Next to them were a factory owner and a mechanic, looking on with a mixture of pride and apprehension at their first efforts as defense tech entrepreneurs. A few minutes later, the drone rolled down the range. The mounted machine gun was soon firing at targets in the distance. It was a good first test. This is what twenty-first century wartime innovation looks like, Ukrainian style.
Case Study: Volya-E Drone
In February 2023, a Ukrainian soldier with the nom de guerre “Electrician” was part of a group of military officials visiting businesses and factories in their home region of Ukraine to see what local manufacturers and entrepreneurs could do for the war effort. Electrician had returned from a battlefield where Russian reconnaissance drones could spot Ukrainian soldiers if they drove within eight kilometers of the front lines. Russian artillery would then strike in less than three minutes. “Anything that moved was getting spotted and killed. We were losing too many people,” Electrician recalls.
To counter this ubiquitous drone threat, Ukrainian soldiers had to walk in small groups to their front line positions. This made resupplying them with food, water, and ammunition difficult. Electrician wanted to create a small ground drone that could be remotely driven to the front lines to support soldiers through resupply and evacuation. “I understood the problem,” says Electrician. “A simple ground drone would mean less people getting killed.”
One local factory produced machine parts for manufacturing plants in Europe and had never built military equipment before the war. But with Ukraine in a fight for national survival, the factory owner didn’t hesitate to offer his support. “In a normal world it would not happen,” the owner reflects. “But in time of war, you should concentrate your efforts and try to do more than you would normally do in everyday life.”
The factory owner began studying existing Western ground drones and decided they were too big, too complicated, and too expensive. He was also convinced he and his colleagues could do better. Within a month, his team had designed and built a remote-controlled prototype that ran on wheels and was powered by a battery. Electrician took the model to the front lines and tested it to destruction. One month later, a second version was completed and ready for testing. This time, it featured tracks instead of wheels. The drone was named “Volya-E,” incorporating the Ukrainian word for “Freedom.”
Tested on the Battlefield
As development of the Voya-E progressed, each new prototype was handed over to the military and driven to the front line the same day. Soldiers then sent feedback to the factory owner by text. Every evening, the manufacturing team assembled to modify the design based on that day’s feedback. The computer designs were updated overnight and the updated model was built the next day. The factory owner and his team all understood that speed was essential. “This is the only way to operate during wartime,” he comments. “We recognize that each minute represents someone’s life.”
Working in such challenging conditions does not always come naturally, but there is a certain logic to producing military kit for immediate use on the battlefield. “When we speak about getting the job done, we are not thinking about perfecting every aspect,” says the factory owner. “If we were trying to make the design absolutely ideal, we would still be working on the first drone prototype. Instead, we do what is asked of us. We check it, fix it, change it, and continue.”
While the Volya-E drone was originally conceived as a way to carry supplies to the front lines and evacuate casualties, almost anything can theoretically be mounted onto the base unit. A remote controlled machine gun is one option. Another version has been developed that is capable of laying mines. Each Volya-E drone costs around EUR 6000, a fraction of the cost of similar ground drone models currently used by some NATO member countries. The motor, camera, and remote controller are bought online and shipped from China. The rest of the drone is made in Ukraine. Looking ahead, the ambition is to manufacture the entire drone exclusively in Ukraine.
Global Defense Tech Hub
The factory owner behind the Volya-E drone is one of a large number of Ukrainian business owners and entrepreneurs with no previous experience in the defense industry who are now producing cutting edge military kit as fast and as effectively as they can. They are part of a rapidly evolving defense tech ecosystem that is expanding as front line troops and Ukrainian commanders seek to bypass traditional military development and procurement processes by going directly to the people with the skills and capacities to solve their battlefield problems.
In just fifteen months, the factory identified by Electrician in early 2023 managed to develop a reliable new ground drone and produce two hundred units, which have been deployed for use by the Ukrainian military along the front lines of the war. The factory now operates twenty-four hours a day, six days a week. Output is currently around thirty drones per month. The goal is to increase this figure to one hundred drones in the coming months.
The development of the Volya-E ground drone was supported by the Ukrainian government’s defense tech sector platform, Brave1. Established in spring 2023 by Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital Transformation and a number of other government agencies in cooperation with the Ukrainian military, Brave1 is a defense tech hub that aims to optimize Ukraine’s considerable design and production potential by streamlining cooperation between individual developers, investors, the state, and the military. “Maintaining a technological edge over the enemy in terms of efficiency, innovation, and price gives Ukraine an advantage on the battlefield,” says a Brave1 official.
The remarkable growth of Ukraine’s defense tech sector has been driven by a number of factors including the urgency of war, the country’s well-educated and skilled workforce, and the existence of a broad manufacturing base. This has enabled Ukraine to rise to the challenge of Russia’s full-scale invasion. “Today’s Ukraine has become a global defense tech hub,” comments the Brave1 official. “This emphasis on innovation is our asymmetrical answer to Russia’s huge resources. In the coming years we will witness the emergence of powerful Ukrainian defense tech companies worth billions of dollars.”
About the author: James Sladden is a British journalist and conflict researcher based in London and Kyiv.