Plywood, styrofoam, Chinese electronics from AliExpress, and a video tracker marketed as artificial intelligence. Russia’s “Molniya” strike drone may look like a DIY contraption, but over the past two years, it has evolved into a mass-produced weapon used to attack Ukrainian cities daily. In the fall of 2025, a new modification appeared – a “mother drone” capable of carrying multiple FPV kamikaze drones up to 60 km deep into Ukrainian territory. Analysts at Trap Aggressor, part of the StateWatch think tank, investigated how this primitive design developed into a systemic threat.
How and Why the “Molniya” Was Deployed in the War
Combat Use: From Kharkiv to Zaporizhzhia
New Tricks in 2025
Components
Ukrainian experts analyzing captured drones found mostly Chinese components inside: Caddx FPV cameras, SpeedyBee flight controllers, motors and power electronics from commercial markets, and even microchips of Western origin, such as from STMicroelectronics.
Between 2024–2025, Russia’s Ministry of Defense actively promoted a “decentralized” drone manufacturing concept: dozens of small production hubs, rapid procurement of commercial parts, and a focus on mass production. This is a case where the “people’s military-industrial complex” operates under the Ministry of Defense’s umbrella.