“We’re really close to making drone swarms work on the battlefield – but we need operators, and a lot of them,” visionaries from Sine.Engineering, a Ukrainian drone tech firm, tell Cybernews.
“So what is your plan if the war comes to Lithuania?” Andriy Chulyk, Sine.Engineering’s CEO and co-founder, inquires soon after the beginning of our conversation about how the company is helping Kyiv’s war effort.
“Since I’m really angry at the Russian leadership, I’ll strap some explosives on and try to blow up the Kremlin with Putin, Kadyrov, and all the others inside, of course,” I reply only semi-jokingly.
Surprised, Andriy exclaims: “But it’s not going to be effective! If you want to neutralize thousands, become a drone operator. You will then have a boat of explosives.”
His idea is no accident because Ukrainians have indeed embraced drones to repel Russian invaders. In mid-March, the country’s Ministry of Defence said it was planning to procure 4.5 million first-person view (FVP) drones in 2025, mostly from Ukrainian manufacturers and suppliers.
Dodging jamming and spoofing
Needless to say, the nature of Russia’s war on Ukraine now has had a positive impact on the development of Ukraine’s drone industry. And Sine.Engineering has become one of the key players in scalable UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) technologies.
“We’re now seeing a lot of small or mid-sized drones. They’re more affordable and you can lose them without that impacting you in a big way. This is a niche for companies such as ours,” says Andriy Zvirko, chief strategy officer at Sine.Engineering.
The company is developing and manufacturing high-tech modules and components to empower drones. Their platform of products and software tools – like data links, digital video links, and non-GPS navigation systems – enable the large-scale production of reliable, and low-cost UAVs.
The non-GPS navigation systems are particularly important since Russia’s electronic warfare has been wreaking havoc on GPS signals, jamming and spoofing them. To dodge the interference, satellite-free replacements were needed.
Sine.Engineering delivered. Its approach is inspired by time-of-flight methods, used to track aircraft long before the invention of GPS. They measure the time it takes a signal to travel between a transmitter and a target.
The system is cheap, Sine.Engineering says, and is already backed by Ukraine’s armed forces. The military is using thousands of cheap drones now but they have to be as accurate as possible – and the people behind Sine say their solutions are perfect.
“Our vision is very clear: to transform modern warfare by replacing human presence in critical zones with scalable and affordable drones,” the firm told Cybernews.
Zvirko adds: “This is a war of attrition. You need a lot of different stuff but it shouldn’t cost all the money in the world, and it should work. That’s where small UAVs come in. There has been a big shirt from artillery to UAVs.”
“But it’s not only about quantity. These weapons have to be efficient. And we’re trying to provide efficiency with really good communication and GPS-denied navigation, two critical parts for the frontline environment,” says Zvirko.
Swarm drones soon to become a reality?
The vast majority of those millions of drones will be sent to the frontlines – unless, of course, the war ends with a ceasefire now being pushed by the Trump administration.
That doesn’t seem likely right now, though, but even if the US-Russia negotiations are successful, it looks like American military assistance might end. Kyiv, therefore, wants to be ready to fight alone if needed.
Sine.Engineering, for instance, is working on implementing a solution for group flights of drones – swarms. This is currently undergoing in-field testing and processing feedback from manufacturers and the military.
I asked the guys at Sine whether it’s possible to imagine a future where an operator, who is in control of several drones in a swarm, can switch between individual drones to have control of it and direct the operation against the enemy.
"We want to enable fresh soldiers to create an impact on the battlefield. They shouldn’t have to wait a year to learn how to operate a drone. Our module lowers entry barriers for human pilots,"
Andriy Chulyk
“But the swarms are working already! We’re just trying to improve the process so that soldiers could easily control the drones like in a video game,” says Chulyk, who also believes that drone groups will reach the battlefield “in a few weeks.”
According to the head of Sine.Engineering, the swarms make sense “because we have so many cheap $300-$400 drones on the battlefield now.” Making them work as cohesive units simply makes sense.
The problem, though, is even though Ukraine is hoping to send 4.5 million FPV drones to the frontlines this year alone, the country doesn’t have 4.5 million drone operators.
“Jamming is one thing, sure. But you also need to deliver the drone manually into the zone of interest, and it’s quite hard for a pilot without the necessary skills,” says Chulyk.
“That’s why we want to enable fresh soldiers to create an impact on the battlefield. They shouldn’t have to wait a year to learn how to operate a drone. Our module lowers entry barriers for human pilots,” Chulyk also points out.
Are AI-based autonomous drone operations the next step? According to Zvirko, Ukraine is definitely attempting to transition to autonomous drones but so far, “creating something AI-based is quite expensive because you need a lot of sensors.”
Creative chaos in the industry
Drone components developed by Sine.Engineering are now used by more than 50 Ukrainian UAV manufacturers. Ironically, the fact that the defense industry in Ukraine is not strictly regulated helps innovation, Chulyk says.
“Many different teams can then try different ways to solve the same problem. For example, we had issues with artillery munitions and needed to somehow stop the attackers. Having many players tackling the problem helped us to find a better solution,” he thinks.
“In Russia, there are only a few players. They’re supported with government money and incrementally update their product. But we have creative chaos so it’s harder for the enemy to play against.”
Still, Zvirko doesn’t underestimate the tech that Russia is developing, especially drone-related: “They’re the leaders in the world, together with China and us, Ukraine.”
It seems that both Ukraine and Russia are benefiting from the ability to quickly test their innovations on the frontlines. Of course, Moscow is also receiving thousands of kamikaze drones from its Iranian friends – already able to operate in groups and equipped with AI, by the way.
“It’s hard to invent something in the vacuum if you can’t really test the technology. Right now, you get speed and expertise instantly, so it’s very helpful,” says Chulyk.
“Plus, the world’s approach to weapons will also change. The US used to be focused on very expensive things like the F-35s. But what we have shown now is that you can have 4.5 million UAVS even if you’re Ukraine with no previous experience of a big full-scale war.”
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