DESIGN
A&D: DRONES
company has seen, and been a part of, some big developments with drones. In 1998 it released the first commercialised quadrotor UAV; it was the first company to put a thermal camera, stabilisers and a video camera, alongside other additions, on board a drone, and in 2009 its drone helped a Canadian Police Forensic Unit in a homicide case. Perhaps its this experience that saw the company’s drones be called upon for use in Ukraine. “So, we were contacted by an NGO [non-governmental organisation] who was struggling to get supplies into besieged cities, and that was because fleet of ambulances were being confiscated, or shot or couldn't get through roadblocks or such,” says Chell. “And so, their concept was to use drones to fly supplies, in particular insulin, into the cities. We donated three drones to experiment with and that worked out quite well. Since then, that NGO and other organisations bought delivery drones to provide medical support.” The drones doing missions such as these are big, bulky machines like the widely-known Predator drone which has a wingspan of 55ft, is 27ft long, 6.9ft high, and carries a payload of up to 450lbs. Draganfly’s most popular drone “is about the size of a coffee table” with a 24lbs payload (without camera, sensors or general attachments etc), and its largest drone has eight blades on it and can carry a payload of about 67lbs. This goes to show that the use of drones in a conflict is no longer limited to the multi-million-dollar machines that governments build. By August 2022, the Ukrainian military was estimated to have more than 6,000 commercial drones in their hands, far surpassing the number of combat drones made available from countries such as the US and Turkey. Ukrainian soldiers are even known to rig detachable, small explosives to these drones to drop on enemy forces, utilise them as kamikazes, or for reconnaissance.
Yet, some situations, like in the city of Bakhmut, mean that these smaller drones, or even the ones provided by Draganfly, would not work. “In a situation like Bakhmut, you probably wouldn't see these drones because it's just too kinetically active. And so, the drones in that area are high value targets just because it's so active,” says Chell. Smaller drones, therefore, have their drawbacks over the bigger, more costly units developed by governments. With a smaller frame, weight often ranging in the double kilogram figures, a max flight height of around 8,000ft, speed of around 60-70kph, and battery life around the 30-minute mark, these small drones fly low enough to be hit with small-arms fire, are susceptible to electronic warfare jamming, and may run out of battery before they complete a mission and can be brought back to the controller. For more sophisticated drones like the ones made by Draganfly, it may prove too costly to risk using them in this way. “So maybe not right in the super kinetic areas, but certainly along the frontlines, you're now starting to see drones being used for things like resupply, and absolutely for things like surveillance and such,” says Chell. But it is the sophisticated sensor attachments that make these drones suitable for use in warzones, even if it is further from the frontline. Draganfly is
By Kristian McCann, Editor, Electronic Specifier
27 ELECTRONICSPECIFIER.COM
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