WIY Drones

WIY Drones — operating as WIY Advanced Aerial Systems — was founded in Ukraine in 2022 by Illia Rodin, who continues to lead the company as chief executive. The firm sits inside the wave of Ukrainian unmanned-systems manufacturers that appeared in the first year of the full-scale war, building hardware in short cycles against feedback from active use on the front. Its engineering roster combines aviation and defence backgrounds, and its stated method — rapid iteration, modular design, hardening against electronic warfare — mirrors the operational tempo the Ukrainian military has imposed on its domestic suppliers.

The company’s product line covers reconnaissance, strike, and interception, but its public profile is anchored to two counter-drone systems. STRILA — Ukrainian for “arrow” — is a rocket-boosted interceptor quadcopter designed to chase down Shahed-type one-way attack drones. According to the manufacturer, it reaches roughly 350 km/h in the intercept phase, carries daytime and thermal cameras, is hardened against jamming, and performs automatic target acquisition. The slower BUREWIY is aimed at Russian reconnaissance UAVs — the Orlan, Zala and SuperCam families — at engagement altitudes of one to two kilometres and speeds up to about 250 km/h. WIY Drones also builds ground control stations and adjacent systems for its own aircraft, positioning itself as a full-stack supplier rather than a single-product house.

STRILA’s break onto the international radar came in March 2026 through a partnership with the German unmanned-systems firm Quantum Systems. Quantum Systems announced an investment in WIY Drones alongside a contract from Ukraine’s Security and Defence Forces to deliver 15,000 interceptor drones to the National Guard, with STRILA at the centre of the joint production plan. Sven Kruck, co-CEO of Quantum Systems, described the intent as scaling combat-proven Ukrainian counter-drone technology to industrial volumes; production is being expanded inside Ukraine first, with exports of surplus units flagged as a later possibility. The transaction remains subject to regulatory approval.

Financial terms of the Quantum Systems investment have not been disclosed, and WIY Drones has not published headcount, revenue, or the scale of its existing production lines. What is on the record is the pull side: Ukraine has made drone interception a stated air-defence priority, and STRILA is one of a small number of domestic systems drawing state orders in five-figure quantities.

The company’s positioning is narrower than many of its Ukrainian peers. Rather than diversifying into strike loitering munitions or long-range one-way attack systems — the crowded end of the market — WIY Drones has concentrated on the interceptor niche created by the nightly Shahed and reconnaissance-drone raids. That focus, combined with the Quantum Systems tie-up, gives it a plausible path from wartime workshop into a durable supplier of European counter-UAS capability.