Ukrainian military intelligence has exposed technical specifications and supply chain details of Russia’s new V2U strike drone, revealing a system guided by artificial intelligence and heavily reliant on foreign-made components, despite sanctions and export restrictions.
According to the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense (HUR), the V2U drone is currently being actively deployed by Russian forces in the Sumy region. The system was analyzed and profiled in a report published on Ukraine’s War & Sanctions portal, shared via Telegram.
One of the drone’s standout features is its onboard AI-enabled targeting system, which allows it to autonomously identify and select targets during flight. This capability is supported by a Chinese-manufactured Leetop A203 minicomputer and an NVIDIA Jetson Orin processor, a high-performance edge computing platform developed in the United States.
The V2U also demonstrates an apparent adaptation to Ukrainian electronic warfare. It carries only a single GPS module, suggesting the system is designed to minimize reliance on satellite navigation, which is often jammed or spoofed in frontline areas. Instead, the drone appears to use computer vision-based navigation, comparing live camera feeds to pre-loaded terrain images to guide its flight path.
In addition to autonomous functions, the V2U can be operated in FPV mode over LTE networks, using a Microdrive modem-router equipped with a SIM card from a Ukrainian mobile operator. Although labeled as Russian, this communications hardware reportedly uses Chinese-sourced components.
The HUR notes that the majority of the V2U’s parts are manufactured in China, including the engine, GPS unit, servos, solid-state drive, rangefinder, speed controllers and power supplies. Other components include a Sony imaging sensor from Japan, a relay from Ireland’s TE Connectivity and the NVIDIA processor.
Ukrainian officials continue to call for tighter export controls and enforcement to curb the flow of dual-use technologies into Russian military applications.
Post Image Credit: GRU
