TAF Industries, which, together with dozens of other Ukrainian defense-tech companies, manufactures the Octopus interceptor drone under license from the Ministry of Defense, was able to make this UAV significantly faster than its basic characteristics suggested.
TAF Industries, which, together with dozens of other Ukrainian defense-tech companies, manufactures the Octopus interceptor drone under license from the Ministry of Defense, was able to make this UAV significantly faster than its basic characteristics suggested.
This was stated by TAF Industries CEO Volodymyr Zinovsky during the presentation of the «Critically Protected» project, organized by the Association of Unmanned Systems and Related Technologies «ARMADA».
«300 km/h is exactly the speed at which the Ministry of Defense transferred this development to us. But, while developing it for mass production, we made several more improvements that were agreed with the Ministry of Defense. Therefore, our modified Octopus has a maximum speed of 360 km/h, which was recorded and confirmed. This is primarily for intercepting fast fighters,» he said.
According to the CEO of TAF Industries, the Octopus interceptor drone also has a homing system.
«This slightly reduces the requirements for operators who will use this drone. On the other hand, we have already heard that electronic warfare equipment is being installed on the „Shaheds“. So, interceptor drones without proof lose control or a video signal under such conditions, which makes interception impossible. Taking into account the additional guidance system, this interceptor, even when it starts to be jammed with electronic warfare, still achieves its goal,» Volodymyr Zinovsky explained.
After the event, we also asked the CEO of TAF Industries to comment on how much Octopus drones manufactured under license by the Ministry of Defense can vary from manufacturer to manufacturer.
«There is still a common platform and technical conditions that the vehicle must meet. It’s just that our version, due to certain technical improvements, has better performance characteristics. But it uses the same control system, the same guidance system, the same infrastructure necessary for using this vehicle,» he explained in a comment to dev.ua.
As Zinovsky says, all technical improvements made by the manufacturer were agreed upon with the Ministry of Defense.
«All this took place in cooperation with the Ministry of Defense. Considering that we are a licensee, we proposed to the Ministry of Defense — let’s make this change, let’s make this change. We made them together with representatives of the developer from the Ministry of Defense. We validated it and after validation, we agreed on certain decisions,» commented the CEO of TAF Industries.
As dev.ua recently reported, the Ministry of Defense recently ordered 8,000 Octopus interceptors from four manufacturers. In total, almost three dozen domestic companies have joined the production.
Last November, the Octopus, the Shahed interceptor drone, was put into mass production in Ukraine. The interceptor drone itself is a technology co-developed by the Ukrainian Armed Forces in cooperation with the United Kingdom.
