Ukrainian plywood drone takes off to be the low-cost answer to the Shahed-136

Terminal Autonomy, a company based in Kyiv, Ukraine, designed a plywood kamikaze-drone AQ-400 Scythe. Ukrainians will call it Kosa, but its international name is Scythe. It is expected to act as a cheaper, simpler analogue of the Iranian Shahed-136.

AQ-400 just after take off. In Ukraine, this drone will be known as Kosa, but it has an English name Scythe. (Screenshot)

The body of the AQ-400 Scythe is made from plain furniture-grade plywood, while the electronics were sourced from Germany and the UK. The Scythe will be manufactured in Ukraine, involving local industry and workers. In fact, plywood bodies are literally sources from the local furniture industry. This drone has a thermobaric warhead weighing up to 42 kilograms, which is also manufactured in Ukraine. It can also carry a couple of 122 mm artillery shells.

The AQ-400 Scythe has a range of about 750-900 kilometres, depending on the weight of the cargo. Not bad for a $15,000 drone. The Shahed-136 (Russia has designated it Geran-2), of course, is more complex, more advanced, but also has a warhead of about 40 kg and costs 20-50 thousand dollars.

Ukraine will try to employ large swarms of kamikaze drones. Especially once the production of the AQ-400 picks up the pace. Image credit: Terminal Autonomy

Terminal Autonomy has set a goal to increase the production rate of its low-cost drones. Under current conditions, the company can produce about 50 AQ-400 drones per month, but soon this number should increase to 500, and then even more. “Our goal is to produce 1,000 drones every month, but you can understand that increasing production in one quarter is unrealistic,” said Terminal Autonomy co-founder Francisco Serra-Martins.

Aviation expert Valery Romanenko emphasized that a suicide drone must not only be cheap, but also good. “If we put the unfinished versions into the air, the Russians will actually shoot down most of our drones,” he explained.

Cruising speed of the AQ-400 Scythe is 144 km/h, maximum – 200 km/h. The Shahed-136 is a much more powerful (again, also much more expensive) drone. In any case, the AQ-400 will be able to successfully target various military targets in the occupied parts of Ukraine and in Russia. It is expected that such drones will simply overwhelm Russian air defences because of the large numbers of them coming at the same time.