Ukraine and Britain are launching a joint drone production venture
The Ukrainian company Skyeton, which specializes in unmanned aerial systems, and the leading British defense company Prevail Partners have announced the creation of a joint venture.
The project envisages the deployment of serial production of Raybird drones in the United Kingdom.
The production capacity will be used not only to supply the Armed Forces of Ukraine, but also to meet the needs of the British army and other NATO countries.
Skyeton is known for its ACS-3/Raybird reconnaissance systems. It is a versatile fixed-wing unmanned aerial system. NATO Class I, US Department of Defense Group 2.
Prevail Partners notes that Raybird outperforms its competitors in its class in terms of endurance, range, cost, and operational coverage.
The basic model of Raybird was developed back in 2016, and in 2018 the ACS-3/Raybird aviation complex was adopted into service by the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
The Raybird has more than 350,000 hours of combat flight time. It is a reconnaissance aircraft that can stay in the air for up to 28 hours and travel a distance of up to 2500 km.
It can bypass air defense systems and active electronic warfare zones to conduct high-quality visual reconnaissance from an altitude of up to 5.5 km and perform other tasks.
Skyeton claims that Raybird receives about forty iterations per year to make timely changes based on battlefield experience.
One of the latest versions of the complex integrates a laser guidance system for guided munitions, which works with an accuracy of up to one meter. This is the only drone of its kind that has such a system.
- In 2024, Skyeton expanded its operations to Slovakia, investing $3.5 million in a new factory.
