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Meet STING: Ukraine’s Mass-Produced Drone That Hunts Russian Shaheds

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Photo of Cyril Barabaltchouk
Cyril Barabaltchouk
News Writer
Meet STING: Ukraine’s Mass-Produced Drone That Hunts Russian Shaheds
A Ukrainian soldier prepares to launch a STING interceptor drone, designed to counter Russian Shahed loitering munitions and now in mass production. (Source: Wild Wasps)

Ukraine has established mass production of the STING interceptor drone and opened a training centre to prepare its operators, developers behind the system told Militarnyi on November 5.

Designed by the group known as Wild Wasps, STING was built as a cheap, easy-to-produce countermeasure against Iranian-made Shahed loitering munitions and similar systems.

Developers say the project received “hundreds of thousands of dollars” in investment and more than a year of development work before entering serial production.

In four months of serial output, Ukrainian forces using STING have destroyed more than 1,000 enemy drones of the Shahed and Gerbera types, the team reported—almost half of those shot down in October alone.

Production is being scaled rapidly: the system is intended to be simple to assemble and field in large numbers, according to Militarnyi.

STING is a lightweight quadcopter with a raised central dome that houses its warhead and camera. It launches without a catapult from any flat surface, can be readied for operations in about 15 minutes, and is claimed to engage targets out to roughly 25 kilometres.

The interceptor is compatible with standard FPV stations but performs best when paired with a ground control station and the Hornet Vision digital video link used by its developers, Militarnyi writes.

To build operator capacity, Wild Wasps has opened the Night Wasps training centre; they say a basic operator course lasts up to three days since the drone is very user-friendly.

Previously, it was reported that the French defense technology company Alta Ares had commenced the mass production of its X-Wing Interceptor drone at a confidential manufacturing site in France.

The X-Wing is already operational and has been deployed in real-world interception missions in Ukraine, collaborating closely with Ukrainian air defense units.

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