The French branch of KNDS has developed a new warhead to integrate with Mataris kamikaze drones, as announced in the company's statement. The design aims to defeat armored vehicles while completely ignoring protective gear like anti-drone nets, "cope cages," and other slat armor.
The warhead was named Arceus, it is based on the guided sub-munitions of the Bonus 155mm artillery projectile and, like its prototype, relies on an explosively formed penetrator to pierce the enemy. A similar principle is employed by German SMArt shell, which has proven high effectiveness in Ukraine.
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But Arceus is made in smaller dimensions and weighs only 2.5 kg. Its armor-piercing capabilities are not disclosed but the developer guarantees its effectiveness against tank-type targets.
For a brief reminder, the explosively formed penetrator (EFP) is a shaped charge projectile that is made out of the shell's inner lining during the detonation and accelerated by explosive force to a speed measured in kilometers per second. It detonates shortly before reaching the target and that's why it doesn't matter if the enemy is using slat armor which is designed to disperse part of the destructive force upon direct contact.
But the difficulty when it comes to such sophisticated warheads lies precisely in ensuring that mid-air detonation happens at a certain distance from the target. The working principle of an EFP is illustrated in the video:
KNDS France plans to install Arceus warheads in its upcoming MV-100 Veloce 330 loitering munitions of the Mataris family. It's a jet drone flying at a speed of 400 km/h, with a communication range of 100 km, and endurance for a 3-hour continuous flight.
There will also be a propeller-driven variant, the MV-100 Rodeur 330 powered by an internal combustion engine. It will fly at speeds up to 120 km/h within a 800-km range, for up to 8 hours straight.
However, the drone is still in development, currently being prepared for mass production. Even upon entering it, cranking up the output should take time, so the new warhead may end up idly waiting for something to be integrated in.
According to EDR Magazine, the development of MV-100 will be completed in 2026, followed by a low-rate manufacturing phase at 100 drones per year, with the ultimate goal being further scaling up to 1,000 per year. If the product secures big orders, the potential is up to 1,000 drones per month. So far, the French Ministry for Armed Forces has ordered only 23 such drones.
Against this background, Defense Express adds, a promising angle is for Ukraine to take interest in the Arceus warhead itself and its detonation system as a technology rather than the finished MV-100 drone.
Ukraine, by the way, already operates a different drone from the Mataris family, the MV-25, previously called Colibri. A donation from France was announced in October 2024 by the country's Minister for Armed Forces, Sébastien Lecornu. The drone has a communication range of 25 km, and a maximum airtime of 45 minutes, the warhead weight is 0.55 kg.
The warhead type is indicated as MW-FRAG 550G, which is an ordinary combined incendiary-fragmentation-high-explosive munition with a contact fuse. Its capabilities are limited to unarmored or lightly armored objects and manpower.
Though earlier, when this drone was still called Colibri, the developer stated that the weight of the warhead was 2.3 kg.
But whether it's possible and advisable to integrate the 2.5-kg Arceus in this UAV is a separate question. Yet still, with the plethora of various drones in use with the Ukrainian Defense Forces, there's no doubt one or two of them could serve as carriers for such warheads.
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