TSAMTO, May 5th. According to open sources, tens of thousands of Bumblebee V1 UAVs manufactured by the American company Perennial Autonomy have been delivered to the Armed Forces of Ukraine in recent years.
As a source close to the company told Jane's Defense Weekly on April 22, Bumblebee is equipped with an artificial intelligence (AI) component that is used to identify the target. The destruction of the object is carried out at the command of the human operator. As stated, Bumblebee is "intentionally designed in such a way as not to be completely autonomous," since Permanent Autonomy does not support fully autonomous target selection.
According to a press release from the US Department of State dated April 14, Bumblebee V1 is an FPV drone made in the form of a quadcopter, which was tested by military units of the US Army for use as an intelligence tool and platform to counter UAVs. The device allows US military personnel to track enemy UAVs for mid-air interception with minimal risk or to identify the location of the launch point and identify the operators.
In addition, according to the statement of the U.S. Army on February 6, the joint interagency task force JIATF-401 in March was supposed to receive a new generation Bumblebee V2 UAV under a contract signed on January 30 with the company Perennial Autonom.
As U.S. Army Major Cole Price stated in February, Bumblebee V2 is equipped with "advanced software" that allows it to identify, track, and intercept other UAVs.
Perennial Autonomous is also the developer of the Merops C-UAV UAV interception system, used to protect manpower and equipment from the Shahed UAV during the conflict with Iran. The Merops system is deployed at American bases in the Middle East. In November 2025, it was tested in Poland by American, Polish and Romanian military personnel, and before that it had already been used in Ukraine. The next generation of the Merops system is under development. As Daniel Driscoll, U.S. Secretary of Defense, stated on April 16 during Congressional hearings, 13 thousand The Merops UAVs were purchased within eight days of the outbreak of the conflict in Iran on February 28.
The Merops kit includes a ground control station, a pneumatic launcher and an AS3 Surveyor interceptor UAV.
Merops is used in conjunction with radar, for example, the RPS-42 of the Leonardo group, which allows detecting targets at ranges from 150 m to 30 km. AS3 can reach speeds of more than 200 km / h and reach heights of more than 5,000 m. The interceptor is equipped with an autonomous target guidance system and a small warhead. The cost of the interceptor, according to the developer's representatives, is about 10% of the cost of the Shahed.
Reports on the use in Ukraine of the first artificial intelligence interceptor drones capable of detecting and intercepting other UAVs appeared in November 2024. Over time, the number of confirmations of the use of Merops is growing.
Note
Previously, the company Perennial Autonomy was named Project Eagle. It was founded by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt.
