Ukrainian company Vyriy Drone has unveiled its new Sokil UAV, an inexpensive tactical-range reconnaissance drone designed to cover daily reconnaissance along the contact line and free up more expensive systems for deep missions. The product is estimated to cost $3,000–5,000, depending on the configuration.
Ukrainian company Vyriy Drone has unveiled its new Sokil UAV, an inexpensive tactical-range reconnaissance drone designed to cover daily reconnaissance along the contact line and free up more expensive systems for deep missions. The product is estimated to cost $3,000–5,000, depending on the configuration.
Militarny reports on the new product, citing the company’s CEO, Oleksiy Babenko, who presented Sokil at Defense Tech Valley 2025. According to him, the goal is to give units a «massive and inexpensive board» for the front line, where losses due to electronic warfare and interceptors are highest, and the use of expensive systems is economically unjustified.
«Sokil» is designed without «extra gold»: instead of top-end modules — «a decent camera» and «a decent digital connection» to keep the price down and provide the necessary functionality. The board can stay in the air for up to 2.5 hours, has a 10x optical zoom and an additional 3x digital zoom — this is enough to confidently identify a car or technical position from several kilometers away.
Structurally, it is an 8-kilogram aircraft that is launched by hand, deployed in ~20 minutes by three fighters and operates in auto/semi-auto/manual modes with satellite navigation. Cruising speed is about 75 km/h, «range» is approximately 130 km until the batteries are completely discharged. In parallel, Vyriy Drone is preparing a unified ground control station, common with the «mother drone» «September».
The company emphasizes: the bet is made on mass production and ease of operator training. «Sokil» should close the «routine» reconnaissance of the front line (observing supply routes, evacuation routes, firing positions, movements of small groups) so that more expensive complexes with a larger radius and payload can work on targets in depth.
At the end of the exhibition, the developers also showed «September» — a «mother» platform that delivers FPV to the enemy’s rear and scouts targets for them. The pair «September» + «Sokil» should solve two tasks at once: long-range penetration and a cheap tactical «picture» on the front, reducing the cost of reconnaissance and increasing resistance to losses in the zone of active electronic warfare.
Recall, previously dev.ua wrote about how the Vyriy Drone company states that complete localization of drone production is desirable and important, but is not an end in itself for the company.
