The Polish defense company WB Group has launched mass production of FlyEye drones directly in Ukraine. The new facilities have been deployed at a company that has been servicing Polish systems for the needs of the Ukrainian military for over a decade.
The Polish defense company WB Group has launched mass production of FlyEye drones directly in Ukraine. The new facilities have been deployed at a company that has been servicing Polish systems for the needs of the Ukrainian military for over a decade.
The launch was reported by the Military resource with reference to the company’s press release. According to WB Group, information about the launch was not disclosed for a long time due to security reasons and the risk of attacks on defense infrastructure. It was decided to make it public after a visit to the plant by the Polish Ambassador to Ukraine Piotr Lukasiewicz.
FlyEye was one of the first Western drones to enter the Ukrainian Armed Forces back in 2015. Initially used in the Donbas, these drones saw much wider use after the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion. Today, FlyEye is purchased both through government contracts and through international aid and volunteer fundraising.
The model was created in 2010 by Flytronic, a subsidiary of WB Electronics. The Polish military was the first to adopt the drone into service. Its key feature is its mobility: the device, weighing about 11 kg, can be carried by two soldiers, preparation for launch takes about 10 minutes, and the launch is performed manually.
The drone operates at a distance of up to 50 km from the operator, the flight duration is from two to three hours. For reconnaissance, it is equipped with a GS4 optical station with day and thermal imaging channels, which allow detecting and identifying targets at a distance of up to 7 km.
FlyEye has a high level of automation: the route, landing and most basic maneuvers are performed by autopilot. The third generation introduced an automatic convoy mode, which can be used both to track enemy forces and to protect your own columns from ambushes.
WB Group is one of the leading suppliers of communication, control and drone systems for NATO countries. In Ukraine, FlyEye has become a direct competitor to domestic developments in the tactical UAV segment, but at the same time an important element in creating a common technological front against Russia.
Previously, dev.ua wrote about how the Ukrainian drone industry is experiencing unprecedented growth: from 5 thousand devices in 2022, the country reached the production of 4 million by the end of 2024.
