$20,000 versus $4 million. That is the price comparison between a single suicide drone (worth $20,000) launched by Iran during the U.S.-Iran conflict and one Patriot missile ($4 million) fired by the U.S. to intercept it. Today's reality of warfare forces militaries to reluctantly expend costly missile assets to shoot down drones flying overhead.
A startup has thrown down the gauntlet to address this blind spot in counter-drone operations. Airvility, founded in 2023 by alumni of the Agency for Defense Development (ADD), Hyundai Motor (005380.KS), and LG Electronics (066570.KS), is taking on the challenge. Meeting with Seoul Economic Daily on the 25th at Airvility's research center in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, CEO Lee Jin-mo said, "Continuously firing expensive missiles to counter suicide drones drives costs up, while having personnel fly low-cost drones to intercept them inevitably entails risk because the operations must be conducted at close range." He emphasized, "Airvility's drone kill chain solution is an alternative that captures both safety and cost efficiency." Airvility is the only Korean startup whose main business focus is in the counter-drone field.
Airvility's flagship product is the "AB-U60," an unmanned aerial vehicle that transports drones. The AB-U60 is a vertical take-off and landing fixed-wing UAV with a wingspan of 3 meters (maximum takeoff weight of 60 kg) and can carry up to four small drones. The aircraft has a maximum operating range of around 30 km. Lee explained, "By loading defensive drones onto the AB-U60, we can approach attack drones far from friendly operational zones and then launch defensive interceptor drones to neutralize the attacking drones." Having completed the AB-U60 prototype in 2024, Airvility plans to begin mass production late this year. Even before mass production, the AB-U60 has secured expressions of interest from various domestic and international institutions, including Korean military combat experiments, Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Thai state-owned enterprises, with a Proof of Concept (PoC) operation planned for the second half of this year.
Having focused on airframe development thus far, Airvility is now pushing to develop an air-to-air counter-drone information technology (IT) system. The plan is to build a "C2" system that controls counter-drone assets such as the AB-U60 with artificial intelligence (AI). Lee said, "Airvility's C2 system collects information through ground detection and identification sensors to identify the form and threat level of attack drones and assigns corresponding countermeasures," adding, "It will determine the mission equipment to be loaded onto the AB-U60 and will also include a Battle Damage Assessment (BDA) function."
Airvility's ambition is to be reborn as Korea's Anduril by establishing a counter-drone system that encompasses both hardware and software. "We will be a company that integrates a drone kill chain solution that runs from enemy detection and identification through engagement to post-action assessment," Lee said. "Anduril achieved a corporate valuation of $60 billion with its C2 platform called 'Lattice.' Airvility will showcase UAVs and a C2 platform more specialized in air-to-air operations." Anduril, founded in 2017, is the fastest-growing emerging defense company in the U.S., powered by its innovative IT systems.
"Based on the counter-drone kill chain, we will achieve revenue in the 10 billion won range next year," Lee said. "Airvility's long-term goal is to complete the counter-drone kill chain and then go on to manufacture heavy-payload unmanned transport aircraft." He added, "We will start as Korea's Anduril and ultimately pioneer business areas that even Anduril has not reached."
