This was announced by the main investor of the AeroDrone project, Dmytro Shymkiv, in an interview with Ekonomichna Pravda, Censor.NET reports.
As noted, AeroDrone was once an inconspicuous manufacturer of agricultural aircraft that were not in demand either in Ukraine or abroad. The times have forced the company to switch to the military. Today, the company manufactures D-80 Discovery and E-300 Enterprise drones. Their feature is a large payload capacity, which allows them to carry cargo and mount sophisticated equipment and weapons.
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"Discovery has a payload capacity of 80 kilograms, Enterprise - 300 kilograms. These are the second class of drones. They are designed for reconnaissance, delivery of cargo to the frontline and can be a platform for carrying sophisticated equipment, weapons and defeating the enemy. The price mentioned (up to $450,000 - Ed.) is the cost of a set of two D-80s with expensive cameras and communication systems," Shymkiv said.
He also explained how their projects differ from the much cheaper Leleka-100 or Shark reconnaissance vehicles.
"They occupy a completely different niche. Firstly, one of the aircraft can stay in the air for up to 23 hours. Secondly, they can carry a set of heavy radio equipment for reconnaissance. Recently, we demonstrated to the military how our aircraft can carry reconnaissance equipment that is not even available in the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Thirdly, the E-300 has better stability. Thanks to this, we were able to achieve a 40x zoom on one of the mid-range cameras," says Shymkiv.
"The military often needs to make urgent deliveries, for example, of scarce spare parts, but it takes a long time to get them by land. Remember Mariupol, when helicopters with cargo were flying into the encirclement. My friend died in one of those helicopters. Our drones could have been in their place. These aircraft are not necessary for every unit, but they are needed for certain tasks," he adds.
Shymkiv also clarified that the E-300 Enterprise is a platform that can be used to install various equipment, including equipment that no one has ever thought of installing on a UAV before.
Answering a question about the number of aircraft produced, Shymkiv said: "We are talking about units per month. These are full-fledged aircraft, and we are tested according to aviation standards."
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