Ukrainian drone manufacturer F-Drones has announced that it has localized 100% of the component base for its drones. The company claims to independently produce key components that usually force manufacturers to depend on Chinese suppliers.
Ukrainian drone manufacturer F-Drones has announced that it has localized 100% of the component base for its drones. The company claims to independently produce key components that usually force manufacturers to depend on Chinese suppliers.
This was stated by F-Drones CEO Stanislav Khutor in an interview with LB.ua.
«We are the first Ukrainian company to localize 100% of components in-house,» he said.
It’s not just about the mechanical parts. According to Khutor, F-Drones manufactures its own engines, frames, electronics, flight controllers, speed governors, communication systems, video transmitters, as well as ground and airborne antennas across the entire frequency range.
Stanislav Khutor calls the dependence on the Chinese component base one of the challenges for drone manufacturers. «Everything that usually makes a manufacturer dependent on China. We are getting rid of this dependence,» said the company’s CEO.
For F-Drones, this is important not only from the point of view of production in Ukraine. The company is now entering the American market, where the requirements for the origin of components are much stricter. In particular, Khutor noted that the US has NDAA requirements, which stipulate the absence of Chinese components in the design of a drone for relevant defense procurement.
According to him, F-Drones already largely covers these requirements with its own component base and has a plan to bring the entire line to 100% NDAA compliance. The F-10 model, which the company supplies to the US military , is already included in the Blue UAS — a list of drones approved for procurement by US government and defense agencies.
Recall that the company plans to launch production of its drones in Ohio under license. According to Khutor, the Ukrainian side will retain intellectual property rights to the developments, while the American partner UDD Tech Corp will be engaged in production on site.
At the same time, component independence for F-Drones is not the company’s only bet. According to Khutor, the manufacturer deliberately has a high percentage of R&D personnel — engineers, inventors and programmers. This should allow for faster modernization of existing products and the release of new ones.
The company is developing a wide range of UAVs, from FPV drones to heavier platforms, repeaters and interceptors. Among the new developments, F-Drones names LITAVR+ for combating jet «shaheeds» and F-Capitan, an aircraft-type strike complex.
