Auterion, Skyfall to deliver 50,000 AI-powered Shrike FPV drones to Ukraine

MOSCOW, July 15. /TASS/. US technology startup Auterion and Ukrainian drone manufacturer Skyfall will deliver 50,000 Shrike attack FPV drones to the Ukrainian armed forces, the US company said in a July 13 press release.

The enterprise noted that the procurement is being financed by an unnamed NATO member in Europe. The contract was signed with Auterion and will be carried out jointly with Skyfall. Deliveries to Ukraine have already begun and are expected to be completed in the coming months.

While Auterion did not identify the customer, Reuters previously reported, citing sources, that the purchase of Skyfall-developed drones had been funded by the German government. The deal was worth about 90 million euros ($107 million).

The Shrike drones will be equipped with Auterion's hardware and software, including the AI-enabled Skynode S autonomous flight system, which allows drones to operate as part of a swarm, and Strike software, which improves targeting accuracy against moving or evasive targets even in GPS-denied environments or under heavy electronic jamming.

"Software defines the modern battlefield," Auterion founder and CEO Lorenz Meier said. "This is the largest partnership in our history. It shows how the West scales precision through software, not new hardware," he added.

Skyfall manufactures Shrike drones in several configurations, including radio-controlled and fiber-optic-guided versions.