Ukraine to receive Czech Jan Žižka FPV drones developed from Russian drone tech
Czech company, in cooperation with volunteers, supplies Ukraine with FPV drones (Photo: Video screenshot / Idnes)
Ukraine will receive fiber-optic FPV drones from a Czech company working with volunteers, developed using technologies from captured Russian drones, the Idnes news outlet reported after attending tests of the new weapons on Jan. 26.
The Jan Žižka FPV drone is named after the Czech military commander. Thanks to its fiber-optic link, it cannot be jammed by electronic warfare systems and is about one-third cheaper than other models.
The Czech company SPARK developed the new drone using Russian technology as a starting point. Ukrainian troops handed volunteers a captured Prince Vandal of Novgorod drone that operates via a fiber-optic connection.
SPARK specialists studied the drone in detail and, based on it, created their own model called Jan Žižka. Nearly all components of the UAV are made in the Czech Republic, including a green fiberglass frame, 3D-printed landing legs, batteries and spools of optical fiber with a range of up to 25 kilometers, the outlet reports.
With funding from the Dárek pro Putina (A Gift for Putin) initiative, the company was able to launch mass production of the drones.
On Jan. 6, Martin Ondráček, leader of the Czech initiative Dárek pro Putina, said an anti-Ukraine speech by Czech parliamentary speaker Tomio Okamura sparked public outrage while at the same time driving a sharp increase in donations to support Ukraine’s armed forces.
In his New Year’s address, Okamura spoke out against supplying weapons to Ukraine and made a misleading claim about defense spending. He said, in particular, that weapons should not be bought for what he called an “absolutely senseless war” with money that “belongs to Czech pensioners or people with disabilities and families with children.”
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