Kalashnikov Expands Russia’s UAV Arsenal with New Line Based on Archangel Drone Project
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Kalashnikov Concern says it will mass-produce a new family of unmanned aircraft based on the volunteer-built Archangel drone program, according to remarks by CEO Alan Lushnikov in Berdyansk. The move shows Russia is formalizing grassroots UAV innovation, a shift that could accelerate frontline drone availability and complicate Western countermeasures.
On December 1, 2025, speaking in Russian-controlled Berdyansk in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region, Kalashnikov Concern CEO Alan Lushnikov announced that the company is developing an entire line of unmanned aerial vehicles based on drones from the grassroots Archangel project, as reported by TASS. The Archangel initiative, launched by a network of enthusiasts in 2022, has become one of the most visible expressions of Russia’s so-called “people’s military-industrial complex”, feeding low-cost but combat-proven UAV designs into the frontline. By formally integrating these designs into Kalashnikov’s portfolio, Moscow is signaling its intent to institutionalize volunteer drone innovation at scale, a development with direct implications for the ongoing war in Ukraine and for Western efforts to counter Russia’s expanding unmanned arsenal.
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Kalashnikov is moving to industrialize Russia’s volunteer-built Archangel drones by developing a full UAV lineup that folds grassroots battlefield designs into formal production (Picture Source: Russian Social Media)
At the core of this announcement lies the transformation of Archangel from a single project into a modular UAV family. Russian sources describe Archangel as a high-speed strike drone capable of reaching around 280 km/h and engaging targets at distances of up to 50 km, parameters that position it between classic FPV kamikaze drones and larger loitering munitions in terms of speed and reach. Over the past year, the project has also fielded an interceptor variant designed to engage enemy UAVs, with trials reported in Crimea in mid-2025. By using these designs as a baseline, Kalashnikov aims to create a coherent family of platforms, strike, interceptor, and potentially reconnaissance variants, built around common avionics, communications links and ground control systems. This approach reduces logistical complexity while enabling the manufacturer to tailor payloads and mission profiles to different roles on the same technological foundation.
The operational trajectory of Archangel helps explain why Kalashnikov is now ready to scale it up. Since 2022, the project has grown from a loose group of engineers and volunteer teams into a nationwide network with training centers in several Russian cities and a continuous feedback loop from units deployed in the “special military operation” zone. In April 2025, project founder Mikhail Filippov publicly presented the Archangel drone’s performance figures and highlighted its use against a range of ground targets, while subsequent tests in Crimea allowed the team to refine communications and guidance systems under realistic conditions. This maturation culminated on 27 August 2025, when Kalashnikov and Archangel signed a memorandum under which the concern provides industrial production capacity and training infrastructure, while Archangel selects and combat-tests the most promising grassroots designs before they are put into serial production. Lushnikov’s statement in Berdyansk that “a whole line” of UAVs is now being developed on the basis of Archangel’s drones indicates that this cooperation is moving from pilot phase to structured product line.
Tactically, the Archangel-Kalashnikov combination offers several potential advantages to Russian forces. A high-speed, relatively long-range strike drone derived from volunteer designs and refined in combat allows rapid adaptation to enemy countermeasures, including electronic warfare and hard-kill air defenses. Its interceptor variant adds a short-range layer against enemy FPV and fixed-wing UAVs, reinforcing Russian air defense units already experimenting with vertical-takeoff interceptors and dedicated counter-drone systems. Integrated into Kalashnikov’s broader unmanned portfolio, which already includes the Kub and Lancet loitering munitions now widely documented in Ukraine, Archangel-based drones can help build a more layered unmanned architecture, pairing reconnaissance, strike and counter-UAV roles around standardised control stations, training pipelines and maintenance procedures. For frontline commanders, this could translate into denser swarms of attritable drones, faster refresh of hardware and software configurations based on combat feedback, and less friction between volunteer-supplied systems and regular military logistics.
Strategically, developing a full UAV family around the Archangel project signals a significant shift in Russia’s defense‑industrial approach under wartime pressure. By institutionalizing a grassroots “people’s” initiative into an industrial programme, Kalashnikov is creating a formal pathway for garage workshops, small design bureaus and informal networks to access serial production and nationwide deployment. This approach helps blunt the effects of sanctions on advanced components by prioritizing relatively simple, expendable platforms whose advantages lie in scale, adaptability and rapid iteration. For Ukraine and its Western partners, an Archangel‑based ecosystem means confronting a more resilient and diversified Russian drone force, where new variants can move from Telegram channels and volunteer collectives to factory production in months rather than years. Geopolitically, Moscow is reframing drones as a mass‑warfare domain in which state industry and grassroots innovation are deliberately integrated, a model that other observers of the conflict may seek to replicate.
Kalashnikov’s decision to centre its new UAV family within the Archangel project marks a clear evolution visible for some time on the Russian front: the fusion of improvisational, field-driven drone innovation with formal, industrial-scale weapons manufacturing. Should Archangel’s proven prototypes mature into a reliable series of strike and interceptor drones, Russian forces will gain more than a new platform, they will acquire an adaptive system shaped by frontline realities and sustained by one of the country’s leading defence producers. This underscores a critical insight: dominance at low altitudes will hinge not just on traditional air superiority, but on how swiftly military institutions can integrate and industrialise civilian and volunteer-driven innovation in unmanned systems.
Written by Teoman S. Nicanci – Defense Analyst, Army Recognition Group
Teoman S. Nicanci holds degrees in Political Science, Comparative and International Politics, and International Relations and Diplomacy from leading Belgian universities, with research focused on Russian strategic behavior, defense technology, and modern warfare. He is a defense analyst at Army Recognition, specializing in the global defense industry, military armament, and emerging defense technologies.
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Kalashnikov Concern says it will mass-produce a new family of unmanned aircraft based on the volunteer-built Archangel drone program, according to remarks by CEO Alan Lushnikov in Berdyansk. The move shows Russia is formalizing grassroots UAV innovation, a shift that could accelerate frontline drone availability and complicate Western countermeasures.
On December 1, 2025, speaking in Russian-controlled Berdyansk in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region, Kalashnikov Concern CEO Alan Lushnikov announced that the company is developing an entire line of unmanned aerial vehicles based on drones from the grassroots Archangel project, as reported by TASS. The Archangel initiative, launched by a network of enthusiasts in 2022, has become one of the most visible expressions of Russia’s so-called “people’s military-industrial complex”, feeding low-cost but combat-proven UAV designs into the frontline. By formally integrating these designs into Kalashnikov’s portfolio, Moscow is signaling its intent to institutionalize volunteer drone innovation at scale, a development with direct implications for the ongoing war in Ukraine and for Western efforts to counter Russia’s expanding unmanned arsenal.
Kalashnikov is moving to industrialize Russia’s volunteer-built Archangel drones by developing a full UAV lineup that folds grassroots battlefield designs into formal production (Picture Source: Russian Social Media)
At the core of this announcement lies the transformation of Archangel from a single project into a modular UAV family. Russian sources describe Archangel as a high-speed strike drone capable of reaching around 280 km/h and engaging targets at distances of up to 50 km, parameters that position it between classic FPV kamikaze drones and larger loitering munitions in terms of speed and reach. Over the past year, the project has also fielded an interceptor variant designed to engage enemy UAVs, with trials reported in Crimea in mid-2025. By using these designs as a baseline, Kalashnikov aims to create a coherent family of platforms, strike, interceptor, and potentially reconnaissance variants, built around common avionics, communications links and ground control systems. This approach reduces logistical complexity while enabling the manufacturer to tailor payloads and mission profiles to different roles on the same technological foundation.
The operational trajectory of Archangel helps explain why Kalashnikov is now ready to scale it up. Since 2022, the project has grown from a loose group of engineers and volunteer teams into a nationwide network with training centers in several Russian cities and a continuous feedback loop from units deployed in the “special military operation” zone. In April 2025, project founder Mikhail Filippov publicly presented the Archangel drone’s performance figures and highlighted its use against a range of ground targets, while subsequent tests in Crimea allowed the team to refine communications and guidance systems under realistic conditions. This maturation culminated on 27 August 2025, when Kalashnikov and Archangel signed a memorandum under which the concern provides industrial production capacity and training infrastructure, while Archangel selects and combat-tests the most promising grassroots designs before they are put into serial production. Lushnikov’s statement in Berdyansk that “a whole line” of UAVs is now being developed on the basis of Archangel’s drones indicates that this cooperation is moving from pilot phase to structured product line.
Tactically, the Archangel-Kalashnikov combination offers several potential advantages to Russian forces. A high-speed, relatively long-range strike drone derived from volunteer designs and refined in combat allows rapid adaptation to enemy countermeasures, including electronic warfare and hard-kill air defenses. Its interceptor variant adds a short-range layer against enemy FPV and fixed-wing UAVs, reinforcing Russian air defense units already experimenting with vertical-takeoff interceptors and dedicated counter-drone systems. Integrated into Kalashnikov’s broader unmanned portfolio, which already includes the Kub and Lancet loitering munitions now widely documented in Ukraine, Archangel-based drones can help build a more layered unmanned architecture, pairing reconnaissance, strike and counter-UAV roles around standardised control stations, training pipelines and maintenance procedures. For frontline commanders, this could translate into denser swarms of attritable drones, faster refresh of hardware and software configurations based on combat feedback, and less friction between volunteer-supplied systems and regular military logistics.
Strategically, developing a full UAV family around the Archangel project signals a significant shift in Russia’s defense‑industrial approach under wartime pressure. By institutionalizing a grassroots “people’s” initiative into an industrial programme, Kalashnikov is creating a formal pathway for garage workshops, small design bureaus and informal networks to access serial production and nationwide deployment. This approach helps blunt the effects of sanctions on advanced components by prioritizing relatively simple, expendable platforms whose advantages lie in scale, adaptability and rapid iteration. For Ukraine and its Western partners, an Archangel‑based ecosystem means confronting a more resilient and diversified Russian drone force, where new variants can move from Telegram channels and volunteer collectives to factory production in months rather than years. Geopolitically, Moscow is reframing drones as a mass‑warfare domain in which state industry and grassroots innovation are deliberately integrated, a model that other observers of the conflict may seek to replicate.
Kalashnikov’s decision to centre its new UAV family within the Archangel project marks a clear evolution visible for some time on the Russian front: the fusion of improvisational, field-driven drone innovation with formal, industrial-scale weapons manufacturing. Should Archangel’s proven prototypes mature into a reliable series of strike and interceptor drones, Russian forces will gain more than a new platform, they will acquire an adaptive system shaped by frontline realities and sustained by one of the country’s leading defence producers. This underscores a critical insight: dominance at low altitudes will hinge not just on traditional air superiority, but on how swiftly military institutions can integrate and industrialise civilian and volunteer-driven innovation in unmanned systems.
Written by Teoman S. Nicanci – Defense Analyst, Army Recognition Group
Teoman S. Nicanci holds degrees in Political Science, Comparative and International Politics, and International Relations and Diplomacy from leading Belgian universities, with research focused on Russian strategic behavior, defense technology, and modern warfare. He is a defense analyst at Army Recognition, specializing in the global defense industry, military armament, and emerging defense technologies.
