Drone-Mounted Grenade Launchers Enter the Fight in Ukraine

A Ukrainian drone maker released footage on Tuesday showing what’s believed to be the first time a grenade launcher was fired in combat from a first-person-view uncrewed aerial system.

The Wild Hornets firm published the clips on its Telegram channel, crediting the “Bulava” drone unit of the 3rd Mechanized Battalion in the Bohdan Khmelnytsky Separate Presidential Brigade.

The footage shows two instances of the mounted grenade launcher firing over open terrain.

In the first clip, a soldier can be seen caught in the resulting explosion and being knocked to the ground. Their fate was unclear based on the footage, but the Wild Hornets said the target was a Russian soldier who died. The target in the second clip was not clearly visible.

The drone maker said both clips featured one of its designs, the “Queen of Hornets” drone, as the platform for the grenade launcher. With a 15- to 17-inch frame, the quadcopter is among the largest FPV drones commercially produced for combat in Ukraine, and it’s typically used as a bomber.

Wild Hornets did not say when the footage was shot, nor did it specify which grenade launcher was used. But during September testing with the “Bulava” unit, the company said the “Queen of Hornets” drone was fitted with the Bulspike AP, a Bulgarian anti-personnel grenade launcher. The platform is meant to be reusable.

The Bulspike AP fires a 2-kilogram fragmentation grenade at an effective range of about 100 meters, or 328 feet.

A drone mounted with such a weapon could thus give Ukrainian operators far more options to strike, since FPV combat drones are typically either used to fly directly into a target as a munition or to drop explosives from above.

The clips released on Tuesday demonstrated the launcher’s range capability, showing the mounted weapon firing at enemy targets positioned well ahead of the drone itself.

“From now on, an ordinary rocket launcher can work at a distance of 5+ km. This opens up new opportunities for the military,” Wild Hornets wrote at the time of testing in September.

Still, it’s unclear whether Ukraine can or will produce and deploy these drone-mounted launchers at scale. Dozens of Ukrainian companies have developed and tested a massive variety of drone weapons, such as mounted shotguns and Kalashnikov rifles, but troops are still widely relying on loitering munitions and bombers as their bread and butter.

Wild Hornets, in particular, has been recognized for producing some of the war’s most exotic drone weapons, including FPV drones that spew thermite from above or interceptors designed to fly faster than 100 mph.