The Armed Forces will be able to promptly make 500 drones per month right on the front and attack the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation
In December 2023, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky announced plans to produce tens of thousands of drones on a monthly basis. Since the Russian invasion has been going on for the third year, Ukraine may need new products from Firestorm - modular drones and a "plant" the size of a transport container that can produce UAV in less than a day. The Xcell called his development to start.
It can be easily deployed near the collision line to start drones for specific tasks or quickly convert old systems to perform a specific operation. The technology allows you to print a drone frame, which can be quickly equipped with a pre -set electronic "stuffing", engines and amounts. "You can create drones of the necessary modifications within a few hours or days, not weeks," says Firestorm CEO Dan Medzh.
Firestorm recently opened a 4572 square meter plant in San Diego, which will perform a double function: 3D drones of drones and creation of Xcells. Medzh reported that the plant would produce more than 500 unmanned vehicles on a monthly basis. And for the wars of the future will need 10,000 drones on a monthly basis, he predicted. To achieve this scale, the Firestorm accumulates venture capital. During the investment rounds previously not reported, the company attracted funding of $ 12.
5 million, of which $ 3 million from Lockheed Martin Ventures. The company plans to use this money to increase the production of XCELL and two drones, which can be printed on a 3D printer in less than a day: 25-kilogram TEMPEST and 4. 5-kilogram "El-Ninho". The big question is how many drones can produce a Firestorm.
Evelyn Buchachska, the manager of the D3 Kiev venture company, which supports the Ukrainian army, told Forbes that she still has to see 3D printing technology that would be "competitive in large-scale production. " But decentralization of production capacity can be useful in the war where UAVs produce UAVs become a direct target of Russian attacks, it added. Small, scattered 3D printing stations can reduce the likelihood that key drones will be destroyed by the Russian Armed Forces.
The startup has not yet received any state order in Ukraine, but found supporters in the Pentagon. In November 2023, the company concluded an agreement from the US Defense Ministry in the amount of $ 3. 8 million for the development and production of a modified drone TEMPEST. The September US Air Force contract for the amount of $ 1. 3 million provides for the company to create an Xcell unit that can produce long -range drones.
Firestorm hopes to produce all sorts of drones for the Pentagon and its allies, in particular those that can continue to work in environments where signals are cluttered and pilots may lose communication with operators. The company also claims that their drones easily avoid the detection of radars, adding: "We will be able to . . . launch hundreds of drones into space - where there could be no question about unmanned systems.