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Наталя ХандусенкоWeapon
13 June 2025, 14:05
2025-06-13
An engineer from Softserve creates drone batteries that are 4 times cheaper than foreign ones
Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Senior R&D Engineer from Softserve Oleksiy Vyshnevsky has been developing and manufacturing various devices for the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Recently, the military approached him with the problem of the high price of drone batteries. So the IT specialist responded to the soldiers' request and developed a prototype that is 4 times cheaper than foreign versions. Currently, the first test batch is being prepared for the front.
Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Senior R&D Engineer from Softserve Oleksiy Vyshnevsky has been developing and manufacturing various devices for the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Recently, the military approached him with the problem of the high price of drone batteries. So the IT specialist responded to the soldiers' request and developed a prototype that is 4 times cheaper than foreign versions. Currently, the first test batch is being prepared for the front.
The idea of creating cheaper batteries for drones appeared in Alexey a long time ago. And when a request for them came from the military, the IT guy made it a reality.
Alexey's homemade battery costs a maximum of $250, while they are sold on the market for $1000. An example of the difference is shown in the photo below.
In the photo on the left is Alexey's development:
all cells are protected by holders from impact;
weight 7 kg, without holders - 6 kg;
The declared capacity is 60 A/h, the factory capacity is 60 A/h.
In the photo on the right, there is an expensive battery that weighs less (5.7 kg), but its capacity is lower — 40 A/h.
"The only difference is that the new batteries (branded) use high-current cells of minimal weight and size. To reduce the weight of the battery. Actually, these cells are extremely expensive. "In my batteries, I went in the direction of using larger packages, which are being developed for electric cars. Larger size = lower price," Oleksiy told dev.ua.
The first batch is currently being prepared, and the military will test it on existing boards. They will provide feedback on the length of the wires, mounting, weight, and other things, after which the IT engineer will make adjustments exclusively to the mechanical parts of the battery.
The military paid for the test batch, but Oleksiy bought the consumables with his own money. Sometimes he had to buy components at double, and sometimes triple, the markup, as they are extremely difficult to obtain abroad.
"Due to the actions of regulatory authorities, the same connectors or power cables (like anything else in principle) cannot be purchased directly from the supplier. Or the procurement process may take 2-3 months," notes Oleksiy.
The plans are to provide a specific battalion with a sufficient supply of batteries for the required number of aircraft and flights per day.
"That is, so that the crew does not fly 2-3 flights per day (if batteries are available), but has the opportunity to at least double the time and number of flights," the IT expert added.
