Design, Build, and Innovate Next-Gen Drones for Ukraine’s Frontlines
Ukraine is pioneering drone warfare at scale. Volunteer engineers, tinkerers, and developers are building everything from FPV kamikaze drones to aerial surveillance tools that cost a fraction of traditional military equipment. Your skills could help design the next generation of tools that protect lives and disrupt the enemy.
✈️ Why Drone Design for Ukraine Matters
Ukraine has become the world leader in combat drone innovation, with:
- Over 500 drone production teams
- 200,000+ FPV drones delivered in 2024 alone
- Constant battlefield feedback driving agile improvements
- Integration of software, sensors, AI, and low‑cost production
Volunteer efforts are driving much of this momentum — assembling drones in garages, testing new designs, and open-sourcing improvements for the whole ecosystem.
💡 How You Can Contribute
You don’t need to be a drone expert — we welcome people with experience in:
- CAD design and mechanical prototyping
- Embedded systems, firmware, autopilot software
- Signal processing and video transmission
- Electronics assembly, soldering, and QA
- Flight testing and simulation
- Payload integration and release mechanisms
- Logistics planning and kitting drones for mass delivery
We’re also seeking testers, documenters, technical writers, and project managers.
🔭 Project Types
- FPV drone design for kamikaze and recon use
- Custom drones with thermal or night-vision cameras
- Drone jamming resistance and electronic warfare
- VTOL and long-range UAV development
- Rapid prototyping and field repair support
- Logistics chain tracking for drone kitting and delivery
📤 Ready to Launch?
Complete our volunteer interest form. We’ll connect you with a vetted Ukrainian drone team that can use your talents immediately.
16 Responses
i believe that proximity sensor should be added to the drones. just to be able to crawl them into tight spaces without getting them stuck rendered useless. Just like parking sensors on cars.
please make sure that the email address is obfuscated at least. I don’t want orcs going after me. Slava Ukraina!
Being a calibration technician, i used regularly the spectrum analyzer for low pass highpass , bandpass , bandwidth calibration, freq tuning and harmonics suppression up to 18 Ghz range.
I want to manufacture a drone or aircraft mechanic in Ukraine.
I am aircraft Mechanic in Brazil.
bonjour,
je ne sais pas si je pourrais vous être utile, je suis un designer prêt a m’investir pleinement. Je peux également participer à des tâches de logistique ou tout autre tâche qui vous semble abordable.
Dans l’attente de votre réponse.
bonne journée
Hi. are we allowed to help Ukraine by printing the 3d printed drones?
please let me know.
I have lots of CAD/CAM experience and a degree in aerospace engineering. Please contact me soon.
I have an idea I would like to share with you for what it is worth.
Have drones that park near roads and wait for trucks to pass. They then have a very short run to the target. They don’t need to hover and find and access a target while in the air. And they can use sound and motion for detection and final targeting, or notify the drone pilot to take action.
The same can be done for attacks on fixed targets. Have them mass nearby to attack in a coordinated way for the “last mile”.
Hello Rick,
Thank you for sharing this with us. While we have not been involved with this idea or innovation specifically, we at DTU have been monitoring other developments in Ukraine and can confirm that this idea has actually been put into practice already, by both the Russians and Ukrainians. Thank you for looking for ways to help innovate Ukraine’s defenses.
Jack Cooksey
hi….i am a canadian product developer and i want to submit a next Gen intercepter drone design..
i need an email contact to send it to..
Slava Ukraine
Hello Paolo, this is Jack Cooksey of Defense Tech for Ukraine. Heroyim Slava! Thank you for your interest in helping Ukraine and contributing to DTU.
Please send this to jack.cooksey@defensetechforukraine.org so I can take a look at it and then have some of our experts get back to you.
Thank you for supporting Ukraine’s struggle for democracy.
Jack Cooksey
Hello I am from the US, I am working on design for a kamikaze drone/reconnaissance whichever reason you might need it for. But I was wandering if I could have more information on your drones. I would need to know the weight of your FPV cameras, how fast and for how long you need these drones to go and what weight of ordinance the drones need to carry. I am not completely sure how this process works and this design is only on paper right now, but if you are interested I can make some blueprints for you to look over.
Hello Oban Aycock. Heroyim Slava! This is Jack Cooksey of Defense Tech for Ukraine (DTU). Thank you for commenting on our site and thank you for your interest in helping Ukraine’s defenses. DTU works with a variety of different groups with different designs, so if you can find a camera that would be suitable or is already in use, you could use that for your planning.
Would you please submit your concept proposal via this link? https://defensetechforukraine.org/project-intake-form/ This is where our experts accept, track, and read project proposals.
Thank you for supporting Ukraine’s struggle for democracy.
Jack Cooksey
Make a propeller driven drone go faster than a jet. Add a solid fuel rocket motor to the drone. Fly with the propellers until speed is needed, then fire the rocket motor. Solid fuel rocket motors are cheap, light, and powerful.
Hello Tim Barber. Heroyim Slava! This is Jack Cooksey of Defense Tech for Ukraine (DTU). Thank you for commenting on our site and thank you for your interest in helping Ukraine’s defenses. From what I understand, there are ongoing developments of the usage of rockets to intercept Russian drone attacks, although DTU is not involved in those projects.
Thank you for supporting Ukraine’s struggle for democracy.
Jack Cooksey
Im a disabled 58 yr old living in Calgary Alberta. I would like to volunteer to assemble/ assist in fabricating drones for Canada/Ukraine.
Hello Gordon Kruger. Heroyim Slava! This is Jack Cooksey of Defense Tech for Ukraine (DTU). Thank you for commenting on our site and thank you for your interest in joining and contributing to DTU to help Ukraine.
If you are interested in joining DTU, please fill out our membership form:
https://defensetechforukraine.org/dtu-membership-application/?referrer=websitecomment-5-5
Membership is free and you will be added to our weekly calls where you will learn more about our projects and which you can volunteer to help.
Thank you for supporting Ukraine’s struggle for democracy.
Jack Cooksey