Ukraine makes drone flight controllers, breaking free of China VIDEO

Wild Hornets, a Ukrainian group which makes drones posted a video on X/Twitter this week with the teaser “What's happening in the video? Any ideas?”

The video shows printed circuit boards going down an automated assembly as an industrial machine addes components. It did not take commenters too long to identify it as an industrial pick and place machine assembling flight controller modules for small drones. That’s a big step forward for a Wild Hornets’ production of FPV kamikazes for the Ukrainian military, Forbes reports.

#WildHornets will receive new stingers, Ukrainian ones! And not only that 😉
To be continued... pic.twitter.com/vWeYz7sH0v

— Wild hornets (@wilendhornets) February 14, 2024

Making Brains

The flight controller is the automated drone pilot, combining brains (processors) and sensors (gyroscopes and accelerometers) in one unit. It stabilizes the drone and ensures that it flies smoothly. While other elements such as the camera and radio may be more generic, flight controllers are specific to drones. At around $50, the flight controller is generally the most expensive single part.

Like most electronics, flight controllers are mounted on printed circuit boards: the components are attached to the board or substrate and the connecting wires are printed between them by machine, allowing them to be mass produced. The printed circuit board has been around since the 1920s, but was not manufactured on a large scale until the US Army adopted them for its new proximity fuse in WWII.

Drone flight controllers are commodity items which typically run the open-source software Betaflight, a standard in the drone racing community, but supplies are still limited. Big makers like SpeedyBee are located in China, which has limited exports of some drone components to Ukraine. Ukrainian drone makers frequently complain that they have difficulty obtaining parts from Chinese suppliers, and believe that there are special relationships with the Russians.

Making the flight controllers in Ukraine removes the potential supply bottleneck, and eliminates the risk of price gouging. Some makers report components tripling in price as Russian and Ukrainian buyers scour the international market for components.

In a recent interview on the WarTranslated podcast, a Wild Hornets spokesmen commented that they had brought the cost of manufacture for their FPV drones down from $400 to $350 thanks to scaling up production. This may also reflect the reduced cost of flight controllers.

The video shows a single pick-and-place machine in operation with a row of at least thirty completed units, each with eight flight controller modules. The exact rate depends on the machine type and the number of steps required, but this type of setup is typically capable of producing many thousands of completed printed circuit boards per month. And once they have their production line processes optimized, Wild Hornets can set up a second or third machine as needed.

Making Drones

The essential elements for an FPV drone are the flight controller, camera, radio, motors and antenna, which are attached to a drone body. Connectors and propellers are made on 3D printers. The assembly process is manual and it takes a few hours per drone to solder and screw everything in place and test the result. Relatively little skill is required and the Ukrainian government now provides online instruction courses on how to assemble drones at home in a “People’s FPV” program.

Wild Hornets produce several different types of drone, with both FPV kamikazes and reusable bombers on small 7-inch or larger 10-inch frames. More recently they started making a quadcopter called Wally with night vision sensors. (Producing thermal imagers, which can cost hundreds of dollars, is more of a challenge – but Ukrainian drone makers Atlas already do this).

The same flight controller is at the heart of all of them, and Wild Hornets can easily switch production from one type to another depending on demand.

The simple production process make it easy to incorporate changes in design. Ukrainian drone makers are in close contact with the operators at the front who use their machines, and there is a constant process of feedback and upgrade.

“It will take you years to test in your country. We do in three days what NATO does in three months or three years,” one speaker said at the Future of Drones in Ukraine conference organized by the U.S. Defense Innovation Unit and Ukraine’s Brave1 technology accelerator.

Like other Ukrainian groups, Wild Hornets are working on adding terminal guidance to their drones to make them resistant to short-range jamming. Again this is easier with complete control of the manufacturing process.

Making The First Million

President Zelensky is committed to producing a million drones in Ukraine in 2024, and is creating a separate miliary arm for drones, stating that: “Repelling assaults on the ground is largely the work of drones. The large-scale destruction of the [Russian] occupiers and their equipment is [also due to] drones.”

Local production of all drone components makes mass production possible on this scale. The Russians may not be far behind: the Sudoplatov group, which claims to make a thousand FPV drones per day, says that 90 per cent of their components are now sourced within Russia.

Funding is still an issue; while the Ukrainian government does provide money to drone makers, many still rely on fundraising drives – you can donate to Wild Hornets here.

Fortunately small, locally-built drones are affordable compared to other military hardware. Joint Chiefs Chair Gen. Mark Milley recently stated that the Ukraine’s that F-16 wants cost $100m each with another $100m in sustainment costs for each aircraft. So two F-16s cost the same as Zelensky’s planned million drones at Wild Hornet’s prices…and the FPVs are capable of destroying tanks, hunting down and attacking artillery and blowing up bunkers.

Wild Hornets’ pick-and-place machine is only one piece in the process. But it might have analysts in other countries wondering whether this might just be the future of warfare.