UNDISCLOSED LOCATION, Ukraine — The heavy bomber drone rose from the ground in a blast of dust and debris, its propellers whirring over the empty training range.
The drone, called “Max,” was initially designed for a brutal battlefield task: hovering over Russian positions and dropping explosives. It can carry more than 90 pounds, enough to deliver a devastating blow.
But now its job is changing.
Like other drones made by Ukrainian manufacturer Perun, Max is increasingly being used for logistics missions, carrying supplies instead of bombs across a fiercely contested battlefield where vehicles, troops, and supply routes are under constant threat.
“Bombers are now being used more and more for logistics,” a Perun engineer, who requested to be identified as Petro for security reasons, told Business Insider at the range at a secret location in Ukraine last month.
In Ukraine, drones are constantly watching from above, and soldiers have described the front lines as a widening “kill zone” that extends for miles on both sides. Here, any movement can trigger a fatal strike.
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Ukrainian officials, recognizing the growing threat to humans, have set out to replace soldiers wherever possible with drones and robotic systems for dangerous logistics missions. The goal is for machines to eventually handle 100% of front-line supply deliveries for Kyiv.
Logistics missions without robots are becoming “simply impossible,” Oleksiy Vyskub, Ukraine’s first deputy defense minister, told Business Insider during a recent interview.
“There is a hell on the ground where everything is happening,” he said, and Ukraine must get as many people out of there as possible.
New roles for bombers
Perun’s “Max” drone is not the only heavy bomber being pushed into logistics work.
The “Vampire,” another heavy bomber drone developed by Ukraine’s Skyfall and introduced in late 2022, has also evolved into a multipurpose aircraft as Russian FPV drones increasingly threaten front-line supply routes, forcing Ukraine to turn to uncrewed systems to avoid putting troops at risk.
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“That’s where Vampire comes into play,” a Skyfall representative, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive developments, told Business Insider, adding that the drone is responsible for “a lot of logistics on the front lines.”
Soldiers and vehicles are still a part of these missions. “But when it’s possible, the heavy bombers are being used to perform logistics,” the representative said.
Petro, the Perun engineer, said roughly 70% of the firm’s drone missions are still bombing runs, but the logistics share is growing. For the “Max,” the company’s largest propeller-driven drone, 50% of its missions are logistics.
“It’s very effective for that role,” Petro said.
He said the drone is faster and harder to destroy than the uncrewed ground vehicles, or UGVs, that Ukrainian soldiers are also increasingly turning to for logistics missions.
Ukrainian operators and manufacturers have said that UGVs have relatively short lifespans; some can survive only a handful of missions, depending on where on the battlefield they’re used.
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Some Ukrainian brigades still use the “Max” strictly as a bomber. It can carry defective 155 mm shells that are unsafe to fire from artillery barrels but can be especially destructive when dropped on Russian positions.
Still, the drone’s share of logistics missions has increased thanks to its ability to deliver large payloads, such as ammunition and medicine, to troops, Petro said.
Heavy bombers like the “Max” or “Vampire” are a priority for Ukraine’s military. Mykhailo Fedorov, the country’s defense minister, told reporters last month that deliveries of these aircraft, along with a wide range of other drones, have increased significantly.
“If we compare what we delivered during the first four months of 2026 to the entire previous year,” he said, “it is already a completely different scale.”
Ukraine’s growing reliance on drones and robots is one of several ways it is trying to protect logistics from Russian attacks. In some areas near the front lines, Kyiv has covered key roads with anti-drone netting, though Russian forces have still found ways to break through and strike vehicles.
