MILAN — The Lithuanian government will supply thousands of locally-made, first-person-view drones to the Ukrainian and Lithuanian armed forces as part of a major investment in a low-cost capability that is reshaping modern combat.
The Lithuanian Ministry of National Defense has announced a $1 million contract with Vilnius-based drone company Granta Autonomy, founded in 2015, for its new GA-10-FPV-AI quadcopter platform.
“The new unmanned aerial vehicles form part of a larger €8 million defense procurement initiative involving several additional Lithuanian drone manufacturers,” the Lithuanian authorities said in a press release.
Overall, 2,300 drones will be delivered to the Lithuanian military and 5,000 units will be donated to Ukraine, pooled together from selected Lithuanian companies, with the first deliveries expected to arrive in the war-torn country by the end of this month.
This marks the first time that the Granta Autonomy platforms will be delivered to both armies, a company representative told Defense News, with almost 1,000 drones included in the contract.
The drones feature a quadcopter frame with vertical take-off and landing capabilities and the ability to carry a maximum payload of 3 kilograms, per company information.
In August, the Lithuanian defense ministry had announced that combat drones manufactured by five Lithuanian firms had passed the tests put together by the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense to simulate a front-line environment and would be chosen to be sent to troops.
According to the local news network LRT, an initial batch of drone had previously failed such a test.
The GA-10-FPV-AI is advertised as being able to operate autonomously in GPS-denied environments, customizable for different video transmission frequencies and camera types.
Ukrainian FPVs have grown in importance in recent months on the battlefield, hailing successes of striking Russian attack helicopters as well as armored vehicles.
Experts have predicted that the future use of FPVs in combat is expected to involve them operating in swarms or groups to overwhelm adversary defenses on the cheap.
Lithuania has paid attention to these developments, having announced over the summer that its armed forces are undergoing a specialized course at training instructors to operate FPVs as well as plans to equip all military branches with these drones.
Elisabeth Gosselin-Malo is a Europe correspondent for Defense News. She covers a wide range of topics related to military procurement and international security, and specializes in reporting on the aviation sector. She is based in Milan, Italy.
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