The Ukrainian manufacturer Vyrii has unveiled an upgraded version of its Blyskavka ("Lightning") kamikaze drone. Now, the system is fitted with an aerodynamic cowling, Militarnyi reported from the "Wild Drones" exhibition in Kyiv.
The company says that with this detail, it has improved control and increased the drone's flight range by about 30%.
The cowling is an aerodynamic shell that reduces air resistance in flight. It has already seen combat use and, according to the manufacturer's account of soldier feedback relayed to Militarnyi, "they no longer want to return to the version without the cowling."
How expensive is cowling?
The base Blyskavka, which retains a price of around $880, already carries an 8-kilogram warhead, reaches a maximum speed of 140 kilometers per hour, reaches a maximum altitude of 2,000 meters, and has a range of up to 80 kilometers when used with a signal relay.
The added cowling, the company said, did not significantly affect the price. The Ukrainian drone industry's cost-and-volume edge is built on exactly this kind of incremental improvement on cheap, combat-tested platforms.
It is the edge that the US is currently seeking access to through technology transfer under a still-unfinalized joint drone deal.
What the upgrade does
The cowling improves the drone's flying behavior and, by Vyriy's reckoning, adds about 30% to its oriented flight range.
The manufacturer described the platform as "an auxiliary means for breaking through enemy fortifications, and there are few alternatives on the market that can work with such a payload."
Vyrii said it is continuously scaling production to meet demand.
Blyskavka's is capable of flying for 1 hour
The Blyskavka's flight time can reach 60 minutes, depending on the warhead's weight, with the 8-kilogram payload as its standard combat configuration.
The 80-kilometer maximum range requires a signal relay. Without one, the operational range is shorter.
The drone sits in the medium-range strike-drone category, which Ukrainian manufacturers have rapidly expanded since 2022, and where Ukraine plans to produce more than 3 million FPV drones in 2026, against US production of about 300,000 in 2025.
This scale gap has reportedly driven Washington's interest in licensing Ukrainian designs rather than only buying them.
