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Engineers of the Ukrainian military robotics community have developed an attack drone Inkvizitor (literally Inquisitor), which will soon be handed over to the army, defending the country against the ongoing Russian invasion.
This drone has the basic architecture of a racing drone, which will make it astonishingly quick and it will be able to conduct reconnaissance and attack missions.
The Inkvizitor is a quadcopter designed to bomb the enemies of Ukraine. Hardpoints on the bottom of the drone will allow it to carry two 80 mm mines with a total weight of up to 8kg. The developers note that a warhead can be added, which would turn the Inkvizitor into a kamikaze drone. This is quite interesting, because loitering munitions are usually fixed-wing drones, which have the speed and endurance to deliver some real damage after spending several times in the air.
The Inkvizitor will not have such longevity, but it should be relatively cheap (especially if designed with kamikaze missions in mind) and still rather quick. Not to mention that it will be able to take off and land vertically.
The Inkvizitor drone.
Due to its compact size, the Inkvizitor can only fly for about 35 minutes, but the quick-swappable battery ensures a quick launch for a second flight. The maximum speed of the Inkvizitor is 100 km/h and the flight ceiling is 4 km. The Inkvizitor should weigh around 10 kg. It should – because for now the creators of the Inkvizitor, the UA Military Robotics, only have a mockup of their new drone.
To start the series production, the community needs to collect around 12,000 USD. The developers noted that they have already ordered the first parts of the drone and the production should be relatively quick and painless because the Inkvizitor uses many off-the-shelf components.
At 100 km/h speed the Inkvizitor is not the fastest quadcopter in the world. However, for what it is, the Inkvizitor is an extremely capable weapon. But, of course, the UA Military Robotics engineers will have to keep in mind the electronic warfare systems on the other side of the front.
To ensure that the Inkvizitor is somewhat immune to jamming attacks and electronic anti-drone weapons, engineers will implement double control frequencies. In addition, an autonomous GPS positioning system will be used to locate downed or crashed drones. The Inkvizitor should be resistant to attempts to make it lost, unable to connect to its pilot or locate the target.
The Armed Forces of Ukraine are already using many smaller quadcopter drones. They are used to observe the enemy, correct artillery fire as well as drop small mines on unsuspecting enemy troops and non-armored vehicles. The Inkvizitor is an interpretation of that idea. It would be locally made in Ukraine, very fast with quick re-arm and battery swap capabilities.
Source: Focus.ua
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