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​Smart Plywood Drone Helsing HF-1 Makes Difference in Ukraine: Quantities and Operational Details Revealed [defence-ua.com]:

The plans to provide 4,000 unnamed loitering munitions to Ukraine, later confirmed to be the HF-1 attack drones from Helsing, were announced by Germany in fall 2024. Today, the Ukrainian Defense Forces are already actively using them against the russian army, as revealed in a video report by BILD.

Furthermore, journalist Julian Röpcke says about 1,000 such drones have been delivered, showing how a Ukrainian Special Operations Forces unit deploys one such system in the Sumy region, northern Ukraine.

Read more: russia Forms Agricultural Drone Units: What They Plan to Arm Them With [defence-ua.com]

"The aircraft can stay airborne for about an hour, we have to find a target during that time. Depending on the direction, wind strength, and cloud height (here likely referring to the cloud base altitude - ed.), we can fly a certain distance," says crew commander, callsign Romero. He says they use HF-1 drones against a variety of targets, from armored vehicles and air defense systems to logistics and warehouses.

Another drone operator, Destro, adds that the optimal operating distance of HF-1 is between 45 and 50 km. The loitering munition brings "very unpleasant surprises" to the russians, as it can reach the calmer places in the rear where the enemy forces feel relatively safe. This allows the pilots to catch targets unguarded, like parked vehicles or troops prior to their rotation to the frontline, etc.

"Our drone is equipped with a homing system that helps to capture a target and lock until it's hit. This is a plus because if we lose contact with the drone — the video [signal] or control — the drone reaches the target and strikes it," Romero explained, adding:

"We are currently working with a system where the pilot finds the target, captures this target, and the aircraft hits it. It's not about whether it's the person or automatics, it's the matter of delivering this aircraft to the target, and in homing mode, the aircraft is not affected by electronic warfare, which the [enemy] vehicle might be carrying. From the moment the target is locked on, the aircraft takes control and gets to the target independently."

The HF-1 is mainly made of plywood, potentially reducing the weapon's production cost. "The material from which the plane is made does not matter in principle, and you can use any material as long as it flies. It can be made of wood, or of foam, completely printed on a 3D printer, and so on. The aircraft doesn't care. In our case, being made of wood makes it even better because it's radar-transparent and better suited for operation at long distances."

The troops stressed that the Ukrainian Defense Forces need more drones and people to work with them. Defense Express reminds that Helsing in February 2025 announced a new order of drones for Ukraine, albeit the model is different. Ukrainians will get 6,000 of the latest HX-2 [defence-ua.com] loitering munitions of the same family with X-wing design, first presented in late 2024. Supplies of HF-1 will continue simultaneously.

Read more: Ukraine to Receive 6,000 Kamikaze Drones from Germany—Analogs of the russian Lancet [defence-ua.com]

Helsing to produce 6,000 additional strike drones for Ukraine – Helsing [helsing.ai]:

• Press Release
• 13. Feb. 2025

Helsing to produce 6,000 additional strike drones for Ukraine

• Announces completion of first Resilience Factory (RF-1) in Southern Germany
• First of multiple Resilience Factories to be built across Europe
• Helsing now one of the largest manufacturers of strike drones globally

London, February 13th, 2025 – Helsing, the leading European defence technology company, today announced that it is producing 6,000 HX-2 strike drones for delivery to Ukraine. This follows a previous order of 4,000 HF-1 strike drones which are currently being delivered to Ukraine, in partnership with Ukrainian industry. The new batch of drones makes Helsing one of the largest strike drone manufacturers globally.

Unveiled in late 2024, HX-2 is an electrically propelled X-wing precision munition with up to 100 km range. Advanced on-board AI enables full resistance to electronic warfare. When operating as part of Helsing’s Altra recce-strike software, multiple HX-2 can assemble into swarms, controlled by single human operators. HX-2 has been designed to be mass-producible and at significantly lower unit cost than conventional systems, thus filling a growing capability gap in modern land warfare.

In addition, Helsing is announcing the completion of the first Resilience Factory in Southern Germany.

Resilience Factories are Helsing’s high-efficiency production facilities designed to provide nation states with local and sovereign manufacturing capacities. Helsing is set to build Resilience Factories across the European continent, with the ability to scale manufacturing rates to tens of thousands of units in case of a conflict.

The first Resilience Factory (RF-1) is operational in Southern Germany and has an initial monthly production capacity of more than 1,000 HX-2.

Gundbert Scherf, co-founder of Helsing, said: “We are scaling up production of HX-2 in response to additional orders from Ukraine, where precision mass is offsetting a numerical disadvantage in legacy systems on a daily basis. It is clear that NATO has important lessons to learn, and fast. With our Resilience Factories, we are taking a distributed approach towards mass manufacturing these systems across Europe, allowing individual nation states to produce locally and ensure sovereignty of production and supply chain.”

Niklas Köhler, co-founder of Helsing said: “We have assembled Europe’s world-leading manufacturing talent to completely rethink and develop a new generation of mass producible effects. Our Resilience Factories combine software-first design with scalable manufacturing techniques. We solve the hard problems in the software layer, not the electronics. This generates affordable precision mass, deters adversaries, and protects our democracies. HX-2 is just the first of a whole range of products based on this premise.“

For more information contact:Peter Quentin+447538 493 450

Original Submission