The Wild Hornets community has shown in detail their new development, which can be rightfully called the biggest Ukrainian FPV drone. The copter-type unmanned aerial vehicle is already being used on the battlefields.
This drone, named Hornet Queen, was developed at the request submitted early 2024 by K-2 battalion commander Kyril Veres (54th Mechanized Brigade) to create a relatively cheap and affordable FPV bomber.
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The result, however, turned out to be much more interesting, as the drone's specifications showcase. As noted by the creator, the Hornet Queen has a take-off weight of 18 kg and can lift up to 9.5 kilograms of cargo making it a useful asset for logistics, in addition to its original purpose as a bomber.
It can also be deployed for remote minelaying. Not to mention that this much payload capacity can support a more powerful battery extending its endurance and operational range, and thus allowing the drone to go deeper beyond enemy lines for kamikaze strikes on valuable targets hidden in the rear of russian positions.
But there's one more interesting role the Hornet Queen can perform — drone carrier, or so-called mothership. By delivering smaller FPV drones to a target location and releasing them midair, such a mothership can significantly increase their range.
Another extremely important task that the Hornet Queen is capable of is signal boosting. Because with the appropriate equipment, the manufacturer says, the UAV can repeat a signal within a range of 25 km.
The backbone of the Hornet Queen is a 15-inch frame, and 65% of all components are manufactured locally, including electronics. Over a hundred drones have been produced and delivered to the Ukrainian Defense Forces, with a hundred more underway:
"Three months of work, hundreds of tests, two dozen broken prototypes, and then, the launch of the pre-series batch. Followed by successful combat tests on the frontline and the start of mass production... More than a hundred Hornet Queens are already working on the frontline. We also have just as many on the assembly line. With every passing month, there will be more of these drones," the Wild Hornets said.
Lastly, the community informed that it's already working on a new version of this drone that will have a new frame, special communication equipment, and will carry twice the amount of payload.
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