Ukrainian DefenseTech company F-Drones has introduced a new five-inch FPV strike drone, the F5. It was designed for assault units, operating at short distances and in difficult conditions — forest belts, urban areas, while supporting positions and assault groups.
Ukrainian DefenseTech company F-Drones has introduced a new five-inch FPV strike drone, the F5. It was designed for assault units, operating at short distances and in difficult conditions — forest belts, urban areas, while supporting positions and assault groups.
F-Drones positions the F5 not as another universal FPV, but as a compact fire support vehicle. The company’s CEO, Stanislav Khutor, said that the new drone’s role was compared to an 82-mm mortar — a vehicle that should be close to the unit and allow for quick support of a position or assault group.
«The principle is simple: quickly get it — quickly hit,» the manufacturer describes the F5. The drone is built on a lightweight five-inch carbon platform and can carry a payload of up to 1 kg. Due to its compact size, several such devices can be carried in one backpack.
F-Drones produces the F5 in two configurations — with a fiber-optic control channel and with a noise-resistant radio channel.
The fiber optic version has a claimed range of about 6 km and is independent of the radio channel in EW conditions. The radio version is designed for a longer range of up to 13 km. Thus, the choice between the two options depends on the conditions in which the unit will operate.
Both versions, according to the company, have already been tested and codified by the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine. The F5 is also equipped with an Opera electronic initiation board.
Another feature of the F5 is its ability to be used with ground-based robotic systems. According to F-Drones, one NRC can deliver up to nine of these FPV drones to a position. This allows the drones to be brought closer to the launch site without the need for fighters to transport them there.
The F5 presentation took place on August 25, three days after the Defense Procurement Agency announced a tender for fiber-optic FPV drones according to unified ministerial specifications, rather than a specific manufacturer.
F-Drones now produces tens of thousands of drones per month, and several hundred engineers and IT specialists work on the company’s products. In recent months, the company has also introduced the F-CAPTAIN midstrike strike complex and the updated LITAVR+ jet interceptor.
