Drone Space Labs

Drone Space Labs is a Ukrainian unmanned-systems R&D centre and manufacturer based in Kyiv. Its catalogue spans high-speed FPV drones, ground control stations, signal-protection equipment, communication relays and heavier strike platforms. The company is best known for the Velykyi Banderyk (“Big Banderyk”), a heavy octocopter that began life as an agricultural irrigation drone and was reworked for combat in the opening weeks of the full-scale invasion. The eight-rotor design can lift up to roughly 31.5 kilograms in total, carries an effective payload of around 8 kilograms, and is used to drop munitions over short ranges — often at night. It was cleared for service by Ukraine’s defence ministry in April 2023 after an accelerated evaluation in which it operated through snow, gusting wind and the electronic-warfare equipment present at the test range, and Ukrainian officials have confirmed its use at the front.

The company has since extended the line toward dedicated strike roles. The Banderyk-24 — also referred to as the B-24 platform — is a 24-inch kamikaze drone built with Dwarf Engineering that carries up to about 7 kilograms, with a range of roughly 40 kilometres unloaded or 30 kilometres with a full payload, and engages targets out to around 27 kilometres. It uses an automatic terminal-homing system intended to keep it on target even when the operator’s link is jammed, and was tested in early 2025 at a range in Lithuania. A related platform, the BM-24 “Banderyk Mothership,” is a carrier and signal-relay aircraft whose “Vidlunnia” repeater extends FPV control links up to around 20 kilometres and which can deploy a smaller Banderyk FPV loitering munition of about 1.5 kilograms.

Drone Space Labs sits among the many Ukrainian workshops that turned civilian and agricultural multicopters into front-line tools after February 2022, and its emphasis on electronic-warfare resilience and autonomous terminal guidance mirrors a wider shift across the country’s drone sector — the same pressure that companies like Gurzuf Defence and others fielding heavy bomber multicopters have responded to. The firm does not publicly disclose its founding date, ownership or headcount.