Domestically known as Bulava, the drone under the export name Mace was presented at the ongoing Eurosatory 2024 military exhibition in Paris. Quite often, this Ukrainian kamikaze drone is compared to the russian Lancet loitering munition, given the conceptual and visual similarities, like the X-shaped wing configuration.
Mace is exhibited by the UAC company at the booth of NAUDI — the National Association of Ukrainian Defense Industries, alongside many other Ukrainian-made developments.
Read more: Eurosatory 2024: How Ukraine's 2-Year War Shapes New Trends in Defense and Technology
According to the fact sheet on this product, now publicly available, the Mace has a total takeoff weight of 11 kg. The warhead takes 3.6 kg of this weight, it combines shaped-charge, armor-piercing, and thermobaric actions.
At a cruising speed of 100 km/h, it can stay in the air for more than 50 minutes, and the motor on the drone is powered by electricity. The wingspan is about 1.6 meters, while the fuselage length is about 1.5 meters.
Among the features of the drone is day and at night operation, the so-called "machine vision" technology that enables automatic target acquisition, lock and tracking, complemented by high resistance to EW to ensure the operator can manually guide the drone for as long as it can under heavy suppression.
The drone detects spoofing, has an encrypted data transmission channel, and also uses MESH technology (retransmission), which allows the operator to set up a strike at ranges exceeding 60 km. The loitering munition is interoperable with scouting drones to form a joint reconnaissance-and-strike contour.
Mace is launched from a catapult. On top of the capability of attacking the target the operator selects, there is also the option of a strike by coordinates.
Thus, Mace is not a makeshift or a ripoff but a fully developed solution promising to become effective, not only because of high specs but also extremely useful technologies in its asset. After all, the inherent range can be increased via relay, and the integration of the night camera and machine vision algorithms make the drone versatile.
Defense Express reminds that alongside the Mace, Ukrainian companies at Eurosatory 2024 also show such projects as the Magura V5 sea drone, offers the visitors to pilot a Raybird UAV from Skyeton and present other interesting products.
Read more: Ukraine at Eurosatory 2024: Magura V5, Online Raybird Piloting, TPU Conditioners, And More
