VARTA

VARTA is a Ukrainian counter-drone company best known for the DroneHunter, a compact kinetic module that turns an ordinary quadcopter into a hunter of other drones. The payload weighs around 2.3 kilograms, mounts onto existing FPV and multirotor airframes, and fires electrically initiated 12-gauge anti-drone cartridges at very close range — roughly 5 to 20 metres. Configurations run from two to four barrels to increase shot density in a single firing sequence. Reporting puts a starter kit at about $300, with the cartridges produced in Ukraine, an exchange rate that favours the defender against reconnaissance and FPV drones worth many times more.

The approach is deliberately kinetic rather than electronic. Fibre-optic and EW-resistant drones cannot be jammed, so VARTA leans on physical interception instead. Alongside the module, the company describes a separate autonomy layer, Dozor AI, intended to detect, identify and track enemy FPV and reconnaissance drones and cue interceptors automatically; it has been described as integrating with Ukraine’s DELTA battlefield-management network so that a single operator can manage several cued interceptors at once. Coverage reports the DroneHunter in use with more than 20 Ukrainian frontline units and integrated onto more than a dozen UAV types.

The firm has shown its hardware at the Brave1 defence-startup pavilion at industry events in Europe, placing it within the same fast-moving counter-FPV niche as drone-interceptor builders such as Wild Hornets , maker of the Sting, and Fire Point , maker of the Freya interceptor. Where those firms field dedicated interceptor airframes, VARTA’s pitch is a low-cost add-on that arms drones units already fly.