Polish crowdfunded Warmates loitering munitions already reached Ukrainian frontline units as Ukraine pushes to liberate areas in the Kherson and Kharkiv oblasts from Russian occupation. The Armed Forces of Ukraine will receive another 20 drones this month. A crowdfunding effort via Monobank raised UAH64 million ($1.73 million) for the acquisition of the Warmates. The Ukrainian Armed Forces have used ‘over 150’ Warmates to date, and the company regularly delivers new loitering munitions to Ukraine. Ukrainian armed forces do not need entire systems but only effectors.
Mykhailo Fedorov, Deputy Prime Minister of Digital Transformation said,”In less than a week, you [the Ukrainian citizens who donated money – ed.] have sent UAH 64 million (US$1.7 million) to Monobank, which we transferred to (purchase) the ‘army of drones’. 40 Warmate drones were bought with these funds. We have already transferred half of them to the front. Another 20 drones will go to the front line this month. Warmate drones can detect and easily hit armoured vehicles, air defence systems, electronic warfare and electronic reconnaissance systems. It takes no more than 10 minutes to get the system fully ready for field performance.”
Warmate is a micro loitering munition developed by Polish company WB Electronics. Warmate is in service with the Polish Army, which has ordered 1000 units. It can be equipped with several different payloads, including fragmentation, HEAT and thermobaric warheads. It integrates 3 cameras to provide multiple views a 8mm lens facing forward, and a 8mm and 12mm optics providing smooth tilting capabilities from downward position (0 deg) to side one (90 deg). It can be equipped with daylight or thermal cameras with remote PAN and TILT as well as laser target highlighter. It has a “Target Lock” mode for tracking moving targets and enables accurate target location data.
The system design permits its installation on vehicles and integration of the Ground Control Station and the Ground Data Terminal with onboard vehicle systems. The WARMATE constitutes a good alternative for anti-tank guided missiles with its capability to operate in a significantly larger radius, allowing comfortable detection and observation of the potential target in a relatively large time span. Optionally the system can be equipped with a laser-seeking warhead. The WARMATE in combat configuration is an expendable solution. In the observation configuration the UAV can be recovered and reused.
