Neros wins contract to send 6,000 drone made from America to Ukraine

The US company Neros has won a contract to offer 6,000 FPV attack drones in Ukraine over 6 months, believed to be the highest level for any American manufacturer. This is part of an international effort that gives Ukraine drone. Making a large number of fast FPVs has been challenging for American producers, but it is essential to how Nero’s work.

“One of the first things we did when we started the company was to go to Ukraine, and we were told that if we couldn’t make 5,000 drones a month, we were at essentially useless,” Nero and Ceo Soren Monroe- told me- Anderson. “So we started with this in mind.”

This is contrasting with the Pentagon replicator program, which was set a similar challenge for building a large number of drones rapidly, and aims to provide only 3,000 drones over two years.

Making high quality FPVs on the scale is difficult. Making it without using Chinese ubiquitous ingredients seems almost impossible. But Monroe-Anderson and co-founder Olaf Hichwa know more about these drones than most. Both are former professional sports FPV pilots and their penetrations have prompted the company’s success.

Challenge 1: Removing China from Equation

China prevails in the drone market, with a company, based in Shenzhen, producing about 70% of all consumer drones. Both Ukraine and Russia now make FPV drones on a large scale, each producing more than one million a year – but they do it mainly with ingredients imported from China.

Even now some American manufacturers rely on Chinese ingredients. This has recently caused discomfort when shipments from Skydio were influenced by an embargo by Chinese battery suppliers. This is exactly the type of problem Neros has worked hard to avoid. (Coincidentally, Neros is also on the list of China’s sanctions).

“Historically, the most difficult ingredients to source outside China have been engines and cameras,” says Monroe-Anderson. “For the two we have worked closely with partners to raise production lines outside China.”

Neros has shown that cutting the Chinese abroad is possible, though at a price.

“Unfortunately, there is still a big difference in cost and ability between Chinese and western production for drone components,” says Monroe-Anderson.

Currently, a drone made by the US will be more expensive than his Chinese counterpart. But even the most challenging technology can be done within the place where the will exists.

“In many ways, the land control system is more complicated than drone,” says Soren-Anderson. “We also build these inside the house.”

Aggressive vertical integration means that all the main ingredients make, so there is no trust in third-party manufacturers.

Challenge 2: Need for speed

Apart from China, the other problem is that, historically, small US military drones have been a boutique business, with contracts for small numbers.

“The largest US drone companies are just set to make thousands of drones a year,” says Monroe-Anderson. “Anydo Drone company that began before the full -scale occupation of Ukraine and has Dod as their main client has never been given a serious demand for large quantities, which means that this was never introduced from the beginning to design of product and factory ”.

Existing suppliers have never created production lines for the type of volumes that are now needed. That is why, for example, anduril are building their own ‘hyperscale’ new Arsenal 1 Ohio facility.

The other thing is that the concentration has been in what they call ‘ISR’ military – intelligence, supervision, and discovery drones or scouts. These are created for reusable and, as the military requires, they are built to the highest possible standards.

When these are transformed into biased attack drones, also known as tedious ammunition, the result is a seriously wide -used item.

“You get something at a price similar to traditional missile systems, which promotes a group of expensive ridiculous ingredients whenever used,” says Monroe-Anderson. “This mainly comes down to the DD’s readiness to pay extremely expensive systems.”

Neros started with a clean sheet and scaling in mind. Even in Ukraine, Soren -andon was hit by a lack of mounting style operations in the FPV industry, as well as the fact that even the largest manufacturers were using Hobiist -style drone configuration systems that were not suitable for large -scale production

“We have had the mandate of mass production since the day of one of the company and we have built our product and factory about it,” says Soren Anderson. “We have left with many of the Hobiist Quirks of FPV drones to make a product that is more manufactured while still modular and repairable.”

Sign in to Archer

The fruit of this design process is a drone of the FPV attack called Archer, an FPV 8 “which” exceeds the state of the art performance “(a Soren-Andson competitive competitive instinct) and carries a 2 kg head/ 4.5 pounds for a range of over 20 kilometers/12 miles.

Archer flies day and night, and in adverse weather conditions. It operates at numerous control frequencies and has a broad band transmitter. Radio-crequency Blocking is the drone rod and is reported to prevent a large proportion of FPVs from achieving their objectives. It has been a special challenge for SH.BA systems, such as Skydio Drones, which were said to be tangible by blocking.

“Jamming is a problem for everyone, including us, but we’ve shown very strong results,” says Soren-Anderson. “Because we design all our radios ourselves and have learned from those operating in Ukraine for more than a year, we are using a completely different composition than other US drone companies. This turns to my view not to rely on other companies for essential skills. “

Ukrainian contract does not include loads. As with other FPVs, Ukrainians will use their heads made in the country, but there are other options.

“Neros is working with deadly loads built with goals, with our partner, Kraken Kinetics,” says Monroe-Anderson. “We have seen that the system as a whole is much more interpreter when drone and head are created together, so we have made a great advantage in this effort.”

All this very capable technology sounds good. But can Neros address the other major issue of American drones: the prices that make them unbearable in large numbers? Some are known to cost more than their weight in gold.

“Archer is a cheaper size order than other small drones on the Blueua list,” Soren-Anderson says.

This means that Archer can be obtained in volume. 6,000 for Ukraine are being purchased by the International Dron Coalition, which does not have the Pentagon drone budget. The low cost also simplifies training as users do not need to worry about colliding expensive equipment.

There are plans for the future, but for now Neros is about Archer.

“We are extremely focused on making the FPV system the most capable and more productive in the Western world,” says Soren Anderson. “In addition to this contract by IDCC, Archer has just become the first FPV drone added to the Blueuas list.”

This is the list of drones approved by us, government agencies, raised due to security concerns for Chinese models. There are already potential clients for Archer in the maritime Corps, the Air Force, the Army and the Special Forces.

Monroe-Anderson is proud of Nero’s progress. But he knows there is a lot to do when Russia is already making so many drones.

“Our opponents can produce millions of FPVs,” ​​he says. “Right now, the US military is after most of the world in the use of FPV drones, and we want to fix this.”