Drone warfare in Ukraine: Hornet strike drones
Main stories: June 11 - 24, 2026
Since April, when my first report on the mysterious “Martian” drone came out, we have learned that it is the Hornet drone developed by the American Swift Beat LLC (now Perennial Autonomy). It is almost silent, resistant to jamming, fast, flies at low altitude, and has AI-based technology.
It has been used by Ukraine’s best military formations, including Azov, and continues to play an important role in the “logistical lockdown” campaign.
Given that Russian Telegram channels now write about these drones almost daily, I decided to dedicate a special edition of my newsletter to Hornet. Unlike my usual reporting, this issue will be based mostly on Russian analysis. “From this description, I can feel their fear — it reads between the lines,” commented my friend in the Ukrainian Armed Forces after seeing my drafts.
In this edition:
Hornet or Martian-2, Analyzed by Russians: Technical Characteristics of an “Unjammable” Drone;
Ukraine’s Use of Aerostats for Middle-Strike Campaign;
Russian Countermeasures Against Hornet Drones;
Rubikon’s Experience.
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This is a longer, approximately 10-page newsletter focusing on unmanned technologies. If you are looking for a shorter read, check out my weekly Ukraine Drone Brief, available to VIP-tier subscribers.
Hornet or Martian-2, Analyzed by Russians: Technical Characteristics of an “Unjammable” Drone
I have collected information from several Russian Telegram channels and a one-hour YouTube video that provides detailed technical characteristics of this drone. They have disassembled and analyzed a captured Hornet drone.
The first attacks by drones of this type were recorded in March 2026 near Donetsk. Later, its range increased to 150 km into the Russian rear. By mid-2026, these drones began to have a noticeable impact on logistics in southern Russia.
Strikes on convoys along the R-280 highway became so frequent that the road connecting Rostov Oblast with Crimea began to be called the “road of rage” or the “road of death” for trucks.
Russians describe the Hornet as a factory-made, fixed-wing, medium-range drone with an onboard AI-based target-search system.
In Russia, this drone is known as “Martian-2.” Martian-1 was an earlier and smaller Bumblebee kamikaze quadcopter produced by the same manufacturer, Swift Beat LLC.
Hornet is larger and flies farther and higher. It is a small fixed-wing aircraft-type drone with a straight wing of about 2.2 m in span, an elongated fuselage about 1.4 m long, and a pusher propeller in the tail section.
The drone is equipped with a powerful SE4720 brushless electric motor, which is usually used on heavy industrial drones.
The nose section of the drone is smooth; this is where the forward-facing optics are located. The internal space of the fuselage is divided between electronics, the battery, and the warhead.
Russian sources note the drone’s high acoustic stealth: it is often detected too late. To reduce noise, soft rubber is used on the propeller blades, along with a vibration-absorbing motor mount.
The straight wing was chosen to increase lift, save battery power, and ensure stable flight at cruising speed. It also simplifies and reduces the cost of producing a disposable drone.
The downside of the straight wing is vulnerability to flutter during a dive. To reduce the risk of structural failure, the wing uses a carbon-fiber spar and metal connecting sleeves.
The drone has no landing gear. A portable catapult with tension or pneumatic boosters is used for launch.
The drone’s weight is up to 20 kg.
An alternative launch method using balloons is also mentioned: the drone is lifted by an aerostat to an altitude of several kilometers, drifts with the wind, and is launched already in the air, which allows it to save battery power.
The drone’s cruising speed is estimated at approximately 100–120 km/h.
Power is supplied by a two-kilogram battery made of high-capacity lithium-ion cells, presumably Samsung 21700 cells in a 12S2P configuration. A fully charged battery provides a voltage of about 50.4 V.
During the cruise phase, the drone’s main task is to pass through the frontline zone saturated with EW. For this reason, Hornet is designed as a system that is almost independent of satellite navigation.
GPS is used as an auxiliary tool for occasional coordinate checks. Russian sources claim that, at the front, GPS is sometimes switched off so that the drone cannot be diverted by spoofing. On the drone shown in the video, there was a label in Ukrainian that read “Do not use GPS.”
The main navigation is based on optical flow: a downward-facing camera continuously films the ground, while the processor tracks the movement of the terrain beneath the drone.
At night or over a uniform surface, for example, snow, an infrared spotlight may be activated to illuminate the ground and help the optics maintain course.
The flight mission is uploaded in coordinates, after which the drone enters the hunting area on autopilot.
Along the route, Hornet can fly in radio-silence mode with its antennas switched off, making it harder to detect using electronic intelligence systems.
When the drone begins transmitting, its signal is reportedly software-shifted to non-standard frequencies in the 160–450 MHz range via HopeRF modules.
These frequencies were allegedly chosen to disguise the signal as channels used by Russian digital civilian radios or military radio stations. Attempts to jam such a channel may simultaneously disrupt communications of their own units.
My Ukrainian contact in the AFU commented on this in the following way: “160–450 MHz sounds unrealistic: the antennas would have to be too different. Perhaps some systems operate in the 160–200 MHz range, while others use 400–450 MHz. In that case, the claim looks more plausible”.