A1-CM Furia
Furia UAVs
Role	Reconnaissance UAV
National origin	Ukraine
Manufacturer	Athlon Avia[1]
First flight	2014
Introduction	2020 [2]
Primary user	Armed Forces of Ukraine

A1-CM Furia (Ukrainian: Фурія) — is a Ukrainian hand-launched, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) designed for aerial reconnaissance.^[3] It is controlled using a dedicated rectangular, guitar-case sized, portable station (displayed behind UAV in photo).

History

It made its first flight in 2014 and was commissioned by the Armed Forces of Ukraine in 2020. A1-CM Furia UAVs are used in the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Capabilities

According to the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence, its latest modification, the A1-CMX, is able to correlate and pinpoint visual map data with GPS and GLONASS coordinates in realtime, and can reliably beam a laser target designator up to 7km away onto an area of 2x2m - even in harsh weather conditions. The CMX version was dubbed a new "Wunderwaffe" in the fight against Russia due to its ability to give final guidance correction to the M982 Excalibur artillery shells.

Design

Analysis of destroyed versions that floated on Russian social-network VK at the end of August 2023 showed custom FPGA and NVIDIA chips on tailor-made motherboards and daughterboards, expensive industrial grade ball-bearings, multiple 830/905nm laser range finders and laser designators as well as precision electric motors and stepper-motors from Northrop Grumman Corporation, Honeywell International Inc., L-3 Technologies, and ABB.

Features included multi-band long-range digital radio, backup gyroscopes, designated chipsets for satellite reception and a secondary high-resolution IR camera. Almost all electronic parts were enclosed in individual hardened shock-proof casings with Mu-metal EMI and RFI shielding. Members of the Russian hacker-group Killnet commented that they were "severely impressed" and attributed "high quality" and "an obvious technological advantage".

The A1-CMX is claimed to have assisted in precision strikes to destroy over 43 Russian tanks and 181 assorted armored and support vehicles during the first half of the Counter-Offensive in the Robotyne region alone. It was described by General Yevhen Moisiuk as an "absolute game changer“ that "leads to spotted targets getting destroyed in under 15minutes at a 95% probability“.

References