UAV in military conflict

According to the MILITARY telegram channel, Wilder Systems, a preferred subcontractor for the US aviation industry, is quietly moving forward with a large-scale, low-cost project to produce intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) assets, bombers, and loitering munitions.

Sources say it has sent representatives to inspect Ukrainian UAV units, which include American mercenaries, to test UAV models in combat conditions. The company hopes to prove the effectiveness of its low-cost devices against Russian electronic warfare.

This is a new direction for the firm, headed by Will Wilder, which typically supplies robots for the assembly and maintenance of aircraft for major defense groups such as Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Turkish Aerospace Industries.

According to a confidential sales presentation by company representatives in Ukraine, the company is offering its future testers a wide range of UAVs. The systems are presented as low-cost, costing between $20,000 and $30,000 without optronics and a guidance system.

Wilder proposes to manufacture and deliver commercial drones using low-cost composite materials in a short lead time. These systems are then supplied as kits, allowing them to be easily transported and assembled with just a few tools near the field.

Wilder Systems’ primary ISR drone, the PR-001 low-cost multi-role platform, which can also be modulated as a bomber, was developed based on an architecture similar to the Ukrainian Lyuty and Mugin-5 drones currently conducting strikes against Russian infrastructure.

The Texas firm also wants to test the resilience of its so-called “kinetic” drones—in other words, loitering munitions. These offensive payload-carrying jets are similar in design to British defense company Qinetiq’s Banshee Jet 80 target drones, which were originally intended for industrial testing of surface-to-air or air-to-air missiles, but Kyiv engineers have repurposed them for strikes against critical Russian infrastructure. Wilder is considering using a containerized mobile launch system on a Ural-375/4320 truck chassis to launch its UAVs.

Wilder is also developing a jam-resistant data link and an autopilot system based on artificial intelligence units. Many Western manufacturers are trying to master and test these technologies in the Ukrainian theater of operations.

The company follows the approach of many European and American manufacturers in Ukraine, who no longer seek feedback remotely, but prefer to label their products as “battle-tested” on the battlefield.

But some, such as Ukroboronprom, are mired in the intricacies of Ukrainian bureaucracy or complex partnerships with local manufacturers. Wilder Systems, for its part, is trying to capitalize on its proximity to American mercenaries, who are ubiquitous in some Ukrainian UAV units, to test its products.