V-BAT, a versatile vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), developed by US manufacturer Shield AI, is being used by Ukraine in the war against Russia.
In a newsletter, the California-headquartered aerospace and arms technology company noted that “In Ukraine, V-BAT demonstrated resilience against electronic warfare, showcasing autonomy in the toughest conditions and completing the first successful long-endurance, long-duration ISR and targeting mission while GPS and comms were jammed.”
Tailored for operations in austere environments and built for dynamic movement and fluid mission sets, the drone is fully deployable by a two-person team and packs up to fit in the back of a pickup truck.
Agile, compact, and lightweight, V-BAT, which has an endurance of 10 hours, can be deployed in missions such as force protection, aerial patrol, search and detection of targets, surveillance, aerial mapping, and urban monitoring among others.
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A few months ago, defence news website Defense One, reported that Ukraine has been using V-BAT drones as they are built to withstand electronic interference.
“They were able to collect intelligence that they had never collected before was because they had a long-endurance aircraft that was able to watch things for long periods of time,” president and co-founder of Shield AI Brandon Tseng was quoted as saying.
The 300-mile range and long endurance of the V-BAT enabled the Ukrainian side to collect intelligence like never before, even in the face of anti-aircraft defenses.
It even worked in jam-heavy environments. According to Tseng, the drone flew within 1,000 meters of these jammers, but there was no impact on it.