A Ukrainian firm is testing a jammer light enough to ride on a heavy bomber drone and shield it from the enemy FPVs that hunt it. Aura-Ukraine has begun final tests of the system, called Aura 3K mini, the Dignitas Fund, a charity developing it with the manufacturer, Oboronka reports.

The bombers it is built to protect have become some of Ukraine's most valued drones. In the Donetsk operation last month, heavy bombers dropped kamikaze ground robots more than 10 kilometers behind Russian lines. The same weapon has been fitted with guided bombs that strike at long range with high precision.

At the same time, heavy bombers are large, making them prime targets for Russia. Keeping them in the air, and out of enemy hands, is the point of the new shield.

Two jammers cover 360 degrees

Aura 3K mini wraps the drone in a spherical, 360-degree cover using two broadband jammers, the fund says. Two emitters, not one, close the blind angles a single jammer would leave.

They work across the 2.1 to 2.8 GHz band, enough to disrupt FPV drones without cutting the bomber's own Starlink link. The whole device weighs about 2.4 kilograms.

"Radiation-pattern tests start on the front line in the coming days," the fund's press service says, and if they succeed, the system is set for serial production.

The fund moves to automate it

The next step is to make the jammer smarter, the fund says. It wants an auto-on function that fires only when a threat is detected, so the bomber does not give away its position with constant emission.

The team also plans to adapt Aura 3K mini to Vampire-type bombers, the heavy night drones that Russian troops nickname "Baba Yaga". That would widen the shield's reach across more of Ukraine's bomber fleet.

Russia hunts the Baba Yaga

The nickname points to a fairytale Slavic witch who flies by night. The real thing has been hard for Russia to counter: in 2024, a Ukrainian night bomber was often impossible to jam and, by one account, could be destroyed only with a flamethrower. By 2025, Russia was offering its soldiers 10 days' leave for capturing a Baba Yaga it could not build itself.

A Ukrainian company has disclosed a small aircraft that can bomb a target, relay radio signals, carry FPV drones behind enemy lines, or strike on its own. The KARA, a fixed-wing drone made by Ukrskytechnology, is listed on Ukraine's state Brave1 Market in three tiers, from a bare airframe to a ready-to-fly aircraft, Defender Media reported.

One airframe does the work of several, and it goes for some $9,900. The marketplace it sits on, Brave1 Market, has processed more than $235 million in orders, lists over a thousand products, and lets frontline units buy gear even before a weapon clears formal codification.

One airframe does four jobs

What the KARA does depends on how it is kitted out. Fitted one way, it drops cargo; another, it works as a signal repeater to extend a unit's radio reach; another, it ferries FPV drones deep into the enemy rear to be released; and another, it carries out strikes itself. Buyers choose among an empty glider they equip themselves, a Plug-N-Play version with basic electronics installed, and a Ready-To-Fly model.

The drone flies light and far

The specifications are modest but flexible, according to Ukrskytechnology. The KARA has a tactical radius of 70 kilometers, and a stated endurance of 2.5 hours, cruises at 90 kilometers per hour and tops out at 120, and works at 200 meters but can climb to 3,000.

It runs on either an electric motor or a combustion engine, and carries two payload blocks of up to three kilograms each under the wing. Launched by catapult and landing like a plane, it takes 10 minutes to set up.

The marketplace lists it now

The KARA is being prepared for codification, the formal approval that clears a weapon for standard state procurement, but it does not have to wait for that to reach the front. Brave1 Market was built precisely so that units can buy proven kit fast, without waiting on the slow pipelines of the past, and the KARA is already there for the price of a used car.

Ukraine's defense technology cluster Brave1 has launched the development of anti-drone rifle rounds, significantly increasing the chances of hitting fast-moving aerial targets, the group said in a statement on June 30.

According to Brave1, the ammunition appears similar to standard rounds used in automatic rifles but features a specially designed warhead that increases the likelihood of shooting down FPV (first-person-view) drones or commercial quadcopters such as the DJI Mavic before they strike.

These types of drones are being used extensively on the battlefield by both Ukrainian and Russian forces. The cost-effective FPV drones have proven highly effective in destroying expensive military equipment.

The manufacturer has already codified the new rounds according to NATO standards, Brave1 said. The goal is to supply every infantry soldier with a magazine of specialized ammunition for use in case of aerial threats.

"These rounds that significantly improve the chances of hitting a moving target are a new development by Brave1," Digital Transformation Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said.

"Our common goal is to ensure that every infantryman has a magazine of such ammunition and can equip his rifle with it in case of an air threat."

Ukraine continues to scale up its drone warfare capabilities. The Defense Ministry said on March 10 that it plans to purchase 4.5 million FPV drones in 2025 at a cost exceeding Hr 110 billion ($2.6 billion), with most of the funds allocated through the Defense Procurement Agency.

President Volodymyr Zelensky has set a goal of producing at least 30,000 long-range drones in 2025.

Tired of military aid delays, Ukraine has designed its own ballistic missile — and it’s already in mass-production

Ukraine announced on June 13 that its short-range Sapsan ballistic missile would go into mass production, a major development in Kyiv’s ongoing efforts to domestically produce the weapons it needs to fight Russia’s full-scale invasion. As Ukraine faces growing challenges in securing weapons from Western partners, and Russia continues launching

The Kyiv IndependentYuliia Taradiuk