The Defenders of Ukraine of the 108th Territorial Defense Brigade have disclosed the budget for the production of their own ground drones, called Makhno. One unit of such a drone costs only 500,000 thousand UAH or 12 thousand USD.
Using such a budget, Ukrainian warriors are developing ground-based mine-clearing drones as well as machine gun drones literally in "garages". Although the Ukrainian military develops drones with a minimum of production equipment and in inappropriate conditions, it takes only a month to produce them. This became known due to a reported by Army TV.
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It is known that with such a budget, developers provide the drone with the necessary functionality to slow down the advance of enemy infantry and tanks. The model of a mining drone presented in the story carries from 200 kg, which is four anti-tank mines or a turret with a KPVT machine gun.
The speed of the mine-clearing drone reaches 40 km/h, but its speed was limited to 10 km/h because the operator must safely control the drone. The battery charge of such a drone is more than two hours. Instead, the Makhno drone can cover a distance of 15 to 17 kilometers and, thanks to its remote control, can remain in ambush for one to two weeks to attack the enemy.
One notable feature of the drone is is its effective solution involving an articulating joint between the two platforms.
This ensures high-quality contact with the ground, as all four wheels are always on the ground. The same solution is used on the Roboneers' Ironclad, which is used for assault and fire support on the frontline.
It should be noted that the source of funds for the production of ground drones is donations. We are talking about only 12 thousand dollars for one such ground drone, which helps save the lives of Ukrainian warriors.
Against this background, we can recall that the cost of prototypes of ground drones, although much more technologically advanced, but very similar in functionality with the SMET Increment I program in the United States, is $2.75 million per unit.
Earlier Defense Express reported that russians had complained about increasing Ukrainian robotic platforms on the battlefield.
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