V2U

Overview

The V2U is a Russian electric loitering munition that Ukraine’s Defence Intelligence (HUR) describes as able to search for and select targets on its own. HUR made it public on 9 June 2025 and lists it in its War & Sanctions database as a “barrage munition with artificial intelligence”. According to HUR’s record it has a wingspan of 1.2 metres, an electric motor, a cruising speed of about 60 km/h and an endurance of about an hour. The Long War Journal, summarising HUR’s findings, reports a catapult launch and a 2.9 kg KOFZBCh-3 shaped-charge warhead.

Who builds it

No public source names the manufacturer. HUR said it first saw what appear to be V2Us at a “Tanker Day” event in Kazan in September 2024, and that four firms, two in Russia and two in China, were involved in supplying parts or assembling the drone. It did not name them (Kyiv Post). The drone carries Russian labelling, but HUR says most of its components are of foreign origin.

How it works

The core is an Nvidia Jetson Orin module on a Leetop carrier board from China’s Leetoptech, fed by a camera built around a Sony IMX477 sensor. HUR’s component list also includes a Meskernel laser rangefinder, a KingSpec solid-state drive, a single MicoAir GPS receiver and an STMicroelectronics STM32H757 microcontroller. HUR says the drone can recognise objects and lock onto a target automatically. Reporters inferred from the single GPS module and the stored imagery that it navigates by comparing camera images with preloaded maps when satellite signals are jammed. CSIS instead describes a laser altimeter and terrain-referenced flight profiles (CSIS). Serhii Beskrestnov says the networks are the YOLOv5 detector running on Jetson boards (DOU); no teardown of the software has been published.

Early units carried a Microdrive LTE router with a Ukrainian SIM card, which allowed an operator to fly them in first-person view. CSIS reports that units intercepted in October and November 2025 no longer had the modem, which left no signal to jam.

Use

The first known combat use was in Sumy region in February 2025. In May 2025 Beskrestnov said Russia was launching 30 to 50 a day across several sectors. V2Us are reported to fly in groups of two to about seven; Beskrestnov described a group of seven that circled and then attacked in Velykyi Burluk, Kharkiv region. Whether such attacks are coordinated by software or planned in advance has not been shown.