FPVs Carrier Or Heavy Bomber: Ukraine’s Evolving Drone Airpower

Drone warfare is evolving rapidly. One recent focus has been motherships to carry and launch FPVs, extending the reach of the small quadcopters.

Artem Kolesnyk, CTO of Reactive Drone talked to me about the advantages and pitfalls of this approach. His company makes the Kazhan (“Bat”) series of heavy bomber multicopters which can become FPV carriers.

“From a technical perspective, this is not extremely difficult to implement,” says Kolesnyk. “But it is also not always the most effective solution depending on the mission.”

To some drone carriers look like the future. But Kolesnyk believes they have a niche role and that warfare will be dominated by something else entirely. FPVs grab most of the attention, but larger drones may be more important.

Bat Out Of Hell

Various versions of the Kazhan, some with four rotors and some with six, have been active since the early days of the war. The type was adopted by the Army of Drones and produced at scale from 2024 onwards.

“We initially focused on bomb-dropping capabilities,” says Kolesnyk. “From there, it was only a matter of time before we began experimenting with other applications.”

Kolesnyk says that heavy bombers are greatly underrated compared to FPVs which get more publicity.

“Recent analysis suggests that roughly 70% of successful strikes are now carried out by larger bomber drones such as the Kazhan,” says Kolesnyk.

Bombers are more likely to attack at night and do not often produce video-friendly images, so they are less seen. According to the company website, a Kazhan typically survives 120 missions in combat.

The current versions are the Kazhan 620 and 630 which can carry up 44 pounds of bombs and drop them accurately from an altitude of more than 1,000 feet, hitting targets at ranges of 15 miles. The Kazhan is also used for precision minelaying and logistics runs. Heavy drones can deliver large individual items like generators and even an e-bike to evacuate a wounded soldier.

A Kazhan can carry anything within its weight limit, and multicopter drones can be launched simply by dropping them like mines or bombs. Adapting a Kazhan into a carrier is comparatively straightforward.

“The idea is relatively simple: a larger drone carries smaller drones and deploys them closer to the target area, effectively acting as both a transport platform and a mothership,” says Kolesnyk.

The Kazhan is fitted with an attachment to carry and release the FPV, plus a radio repeater, so the FPV operator can communicate at long range.

Kazhan As A Carrier

The idea may be simple, but practical issues can intrude. In Ukraine though, work progresses incredibly quickly compared to the years-long NATO development cycle.

“It took about four weeks from the decision to pursue the idea to develop a working system. We began testing the first prototype within the first week. After that, we spent another three weeks making improvements and modifications,” says Kolesnyk.

However, the carrier-borne FPVs had their limitations, and they were not as successful as hoped.

“The effectiveness of FPV drones has proven lower than initially expected, which limits the operational value of some mothership concepts,” says Kolesnyk.

Communications, and the time-lag or “latency” involved when using a radio repeater, were significant factors.

“Long-distance control introduces additional issues, particularly with signal stability, communications reliability, and potential latency. These factors make it significantly more complex to maintain precise control and achieve reliable outcomes when operating small drones far from the operator,” says Kolesnyk.

Many developers (including Sine, Auterion and StratForce) are working on swarm solutions for Ukraine where carriers release FPVs which pilot themselves, coordinating their actions to hit multiple targets. Kolesnyk says the systems he has seen are not yet mature.

“Current hardware and software are not yet advanced enough to reliably support fully autonomous drone swarms, which is where the real potential might lie,” says Kolesnyk. “At the moment, mothership drones are a very niche solution. We can only identify a small number of missions where this concept provides a real operational advantage.”

This might include specific cases where there was a need to transport FPVs to a target that only they could attack, such as going into buildings.

FPV Carriers Or Missile Carriers?

Kolesnyk suggests that in most cases there is better solution. FPV operators see carriers as a way of extending their reach. But to bomber makers like Reactive, the FPV is simply another munition, one which allows Kazhan to hit targets from stand-off distances rather than flying over them.

“Helicopters and fighter jets typically carry various types of ammunition, including high-precision and guided rockets,” says Kolesnyk.

The B-52 bomber started off with unguided gravity bombs requiring it to fly over targets in the 1950s-60s, but can now drop precision glide bombs with range of tens of miles, or launch cruise missiles with a range of over 700 miles. These allow the B-52 to stay outside the range of air defenses. Kolesnyk suggests that what is really needed are stand-off precision munitions for bomber drones.

A weapon with a range of a few hundred metres will keep the bomber out of the range of most jammers and small arms. A weapon striking from a few miles away will outrange most anti-aircraft fires. Guns or guided 70mm rockets like the U.S. supplied APKWS might do the job.

“In practice, guns have proven ineffective for UAVs,” says Kolesnyk. “Some projects have attempted to integrate guided rockets, but cost quickly becomes a major issue, and Ukraine currently does not have domestic producers of such systems. Nevertheless, this area still has significant potential, and we are actively looking for partners in the EU or the United States to help develop these capabilities further.”

Guided weapons tend to be pricey compared to FPVs costing less than $1k apiece. At somewhere north of $25k per shot, an APKWS would cost more than the Kazhan bomber carrying it. Even the Turkish alternative, the Roketsan Cirit, is priced at around $19k. What is needed is something more like a Ukrainian version of the U.S. Navy’s canceled 5-pound, $4,000 Spike guided missile, Raytheon’s proposed 40mm Pike, or again the low-cost 3-pound laser- guided mini-missile from Roketsan.

We have already seen Ukrainian bombers dropping experimental laser-guided glide bombs, and other miniature guided munition projects are well under way in Ukraine and elsewhere. These efforts may succeed in combining high accuracy with low cost and acceptable range. A mass-produced precision weapon even with a range of one mile would be a game changer.

Ukraine is currently testing a new generation of heavy multicopters with larger payloads, longer rangers and more secure communications and better autonomy. The onloy question is what they will carry.

The race is on. Drone bombers may be armed with guided weapons, or new technology may see them releasing swarms of autonomous FPVs with a good hit rate. Either way, progress is likely to be rapid.