Neros Nears Release of Fast Drone to Bring Down Jet-Powered Russian Drones

U.S. drone maker Neros Technologies said that by the end of the year, it will supply Ukraine with a drone capable of taking down the Russian jet-powered kamikaze drones that have devastated the Ukraine capital of Kyiv for the last two months.

Russia has deployed the Geran-4 drone in often around-the-clock attacks on the city since August, using it to smash into civilian targets like apartment buildings, where it explodes on contact. In the latest attacks Monday and Tuesday this week, waves of the drones hit the country’s Academy of Sciences building in Kyiv, along with a medical center.

Ukraine has been largely defenseless against the drone, which flies more than 300 miles an hour, since it has few remaining Patriot missiles and no interceptor drones fast and nimble enough to challenge the Geran-4. Ukrainian officials have said the country is developing its own new weapons to bring down the Russian drones but have not indicated when they will be available.

Neros faces a steep challenge, to be sure. Reese Hamilton, Neros’ head of communications, said prototypes of the Bandit drone have already flown more than 187 miles an hour, well short of the Geran-4’s speed. Neros is pushing the speed further but Hamilton said the Bandit does not need to reach the speeds of the Geran-4.

He notes the Russian drone “really isn’t maneuverable. It has a pretty fixed trajectory.” He claimed the Bandit could intercept the Russian drone even if it were “moving a thousand kilometers per hour,” or 625 miles an hour. The Bandit and the Geran-4 can fly at the same altitude of 5 miles, he said.

“You can rely on sensing and trajectory and radar to intercept,” he said. “It’s not like a one-to-one foot race.”

Neros has previously said it will release the Bandit in December, but this is the first time it has said the drone aims to down the Geran-4.

Unlike the Geran-4, the Neros drone is battery powered. To fly at such speed, it needs a next-generation anode, and Hamilton said the company was deciding between silicon and lithium metal, which has not been reported previously.

The Torrance, Calif.–based startup has begun to stand out among dozens of U.S. drone startups that have emerged since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. The stretch of coastal Southern California cities from El Segundo to Torrance has become a band of drone, battery and other defense tech startups seeking business with the Department of Defense, often specifically to arm Ukraine.

Neros, which raised a Series C round at a $2.5 billion valuation in August, has been among the most successful. Earlier this month, as we wrote, it was the biggest winner in the Pentagon’s Drone Dominance competition (more on that below). It pumps out 5,000 drones a month at its Torrance factory, most of which go to war zones including Ukraine, Hamilton said, and it plans to ramp up to more than 80,000 drones a month in 2028.

On Wednesday, Neros said it had just received a $100 million order for 14,000 drones from the Pentagon. In July, Neros got a $500 million contract from the Army for 10,000 drones. And last year, an international coalition contracted Neros to deliver 6,000 of its Archer kamikaze drones to Ukraine, and the company set up a factory and a research and development center in Kyiv.

CEO Soren Monroe-Anderson and Chief Technology Officer Olaf Hichwa co-founded Neros in 2023 after seeing images of the drones that Russia was flying in the Ukraine war. They decided “we can build better drones,” Hamilton said. Monroe-Anderson and Hichwa are both longtime drone racers.

The pair hand-built 30 prototypes of a drone and flew to Ukraine with them. But an official at Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense told them they would have to deliver at least 5,000 drones per month to be taken seriously, the company has said.

Hamilton declined to disclose how many drones per month it is selling to Ukraine now.

He said that among Neros’ primary advantages are its manufacturing capacity and its presence in Kyiv. In the Ukraine capital, he said, Neros’ staff is able to respond quickly to new Russian strategies and technology.

“The nature of warfare is inherently fluid,” Hamilton said. “So there will be a counterdrone strategy that’s introduced and a counter-counterdrone strategy. You have to be nimble enough to react to those things.”

In the Drone Dominance competition, Neros won first place in the Close Quarters Battle category, in which the drones had to complete a mission in confined spaces like a building, where GPS did not necessarily work. And it won third place in the Deep Strike category, in which drones had to hit a target after a roughly 9-mile flight, sometimes at night, during which their navigation might also be jammed.

The Pentagon also awarded Neros a bonus drone order worth an estimated $10 million for beating the other competitors in delivering 2,400 of its drones, which was the competition’s requirement.

Steve LeVine is editor of The Electric. Previously, he worked at Axios, Quartz and Medium, and before that The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. He is the author of The Powerhouse: America, China and the Great Battery War, and is on Twitter @stevelevine