The flat-packed cardboard drones held together with elastic bands that are taking out Russian jets in Ukraine
A fleet of drones made out of cardboard and held together with elastic bands and tape are thought to have destroyed or damaged at least five Russian jets in the Ukraine war.
Australia has sent hundreds of the SYPAQ cardboard drones to Ukraine and Forces News journalist Simon Newton met the company behind the drone at this year's DSEI exhibition in London.
The drones arrive flat-packed like some well-known Swedish furniture.
A bit of sticky tape and a few elastic bands later, and what you get is a military-grade UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) that is able to carry several kilos of explosives over 75 miles.
The cardboard drone, known to the makers as the Precision Payload Delivery System or PPDS, is thought to have even been used to attack a military base hundreds of miles inside Russian territory.
The PPDS is an unmanned aerial vehicle designed by Australian engineering firm SYPAQ that is capable of carrying 3kg of explosives.
Designed originally for reconnaissance and logistics resupply, Ukrainian forces have turned the drone into a highly effective kamikaze weapon.
Michael Partridge of SYPAQ Australia said of the device: "The capability brick we call it. It has an avionics programmable laptop or a tablet that allows you to mission plan. It also has a launcher.
"All very simple and quick, easily assembled in theatre and allows you to operate quite quickly.
"With the PPDS it is about a shoebox-size roughly, and it can carry three kilos. We've recently developed a heavy-lift version that can carry six kilos."
Last month the Ukrainians launched a series of drone strikes against Russian airfields.
In one of those attacks an air base at Kursk was targeted and five fighter jets, missile launchers and an air defence system were destroyed by drones.
Another attack that was carried out two days later at Psykov airfield, 430 miles inside Russia’s border, resulted in the destruction of two Ilyushin cargo planes. It is suspected that cardboard drones were used.
Australia has been supplying Kyiv with 100 PPDS drones every month since March this year, and Ukraine has been using them to devastating effect.
Mr Partridge said: "These will roughly equate to $5,000 Australian (£2,608).
"When you look at the more military-grade systems, fixed winged or not, you're talking upward of $20,000 to $30,000.
"So it really does allow the user to use it in a more aggressive way due to the cost point of the product."
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