More effective than 120-mm mortars. Finland presents Steel Eagle kamikaze drone armed with shrapnel
At DSEI 2023 in London, the Finnish tech company Insta demonstrated a kamikaze drone that explodes over enemy trenches and destroys infantry with a significant amount of shrapnel.
Insta Steel Eagle is a new, unique and effective solution for defeating enemy manpower. A kamikaze drone can transport a warhead with steel or tungsten shrapnel and scatter fragments over a wide area of effect, accurately hitting the desired target from above. The developers claim that the strength of the explosive effect and the angle of spread can be adjusted depending on the drone’s height and angle of attack. According to the company’s engineers, their shrapnel destroys enemy and equipment better than standard 120 mm mortars.
Each kamikaze drone can cover an area of up to 2,000 square meters, depending on its altitude. The weight of the ammunition is 3.6 kg, and the range of the drone is 6 km.
“Our drone performs much better compared to the shrapnel impact of mortar or artillery fire. The product concept complies with all international conventions ratified by Finland, namely the conventions signed in Ottawa and Geneva,” says Tuure Lehtoranta, Vice President of Sales at Insta.
The company will also soon introduce the Insta Steel Lynx “jumping” anti-personnel mine. Its development is almost complete, and the product is expected to be ready for market launch by the end of 2023.
Insta is a strategic partner of the Finnish Defense Forces. Finland’s membership in NATO encourages local defense companies to cooperate with other international military giants. For example, Insta will play an important role in servicing the avionics of the future fleet of Finnish F-35 fighters. The company also signed a contract with Lockheed Martin to implement a military data filtering solution.
