Ivan Tolchinsky for Dev.ua: "Our Company Is Not Looking for Ukrainians Who Left Ukraine During The War Without Any Special Reason"

Dev.ua has published an article about AtlasPRO drones for the Armed Forces of Ukraine, an ATLAS office in Ukraine, and salaries for Ukrainian employees.

 R&D office in Ukraine

The main goal for the team will be to provide better optimization and improvements for Ukraine's use cases by having local embedded software engineers.

Right now, we have four open positions at the company, but we are open to hiring more depending on the skills of specialists. We will use direct recruitment and outsourcing companies. 

Actually, our company is not looking for Ukrainians who left Ukraine during the war without any special reason. If a person is not loyal to his/her country, then he/she will not be loyal to the company either.

We know there is competition, but we also have other offices around the world, and we are open to filling these positions there as well.

Salaries for Ukrainian engineers

We need to do market research to find the best price point in the market and then compare it with the EU and Asian markets. But let's say that if there is a really high-level specialist who can generate new ideas and products, then salary doesn't matter. 

Open a drone production facility in Ukraine

We're working on a new product, and our plan is to produce it in Ukraine.

But for now we are trying to keep our plans for this under the radar before an official release.

Drones production

More than 300 units per month, and this number is more than five times higher than in previous years. The ATLAS complex includes not only a drone but also, of course, thermal cameras with high-precision components and other devices. While increasing production for Ukraine over the past year, the company encountered some difficulties in the delivery of components parts. Suppliers extended their delivery terms by 12-14 months. Under such conditions, we were forced to revise our production plans and go into unfavorable positions, buying components at a huge cost in order to fulfill the terms of the contract with timely delivery.

Drones for Ukraine

We have only sold AtlasPRO drones as of right now, but the company can’t disclose the quantity delivered to Ukraine according to the terms of the contract. 

We had a direct contract with the Ministry of Defence, which we have already finished. And now we are moving towards another contract.

Many drones were also purchased by Latvian, Dutch, and Ukrainian volunteers. Also, ATLAS has been donating drones free of charge to Ukrainian defenders to help win the war. Ukraine needs more drones and we help as we can.

ATLAS drones on the battlefields

The examples I have to provide are mainly about the communication and jamming capabilities of our system. 

Here is first example from Ukrainian Air Assault Brigade soldier Artem D., who was operating AtlasPRO near Donetsk, described the ease of learning how to use AtlasPRO:

“Just yesterday, we finished studying to be drone operators, but today we are fully utilizing AtlasPRO near the city of Donetsk. The drone is very resistant to countermeasures and was able to maintain stable connections during the flight, despite encountering numerous jamming systems.”

Here is the second one. After the Ukrainian military tested the new AtlasPRO capabilities near Bakhmut, Ukrainian soldier Serhii A. praised anti-jamming features of AtlasPRO:

“The frequency hopping system really works and will give a real chance of saving the equipment from being lost and completing the task at hand.”

Also, you can read this review by one of the most popular Ukrainian military experts, who spent a day testing AtlasPRO against a Portable Electronic Warfare Complex (EW). 

Competition with local Ukrainian drone manufacturers

I think right now we are operating in different fields and have different technologies and production capabilities. There are a lot of 3D-printed drones with open-source software. But to become competitive products, they will need a couple of years and significant investments. But some percent of these companies will become big players in the future.

Latvia, where ATLAS is located, has a border with Russia

Of course, we feel threatened by Russia, and Latvia is a much smaller country with a small number of people.

My main conclusion from this war is that it’s not about size; it's about how brave your people are.

We see how small systems make a huge difference on the battlefield and in the motivation of soldiers. From a production perspective, we see a big need for decentralized sources of materials and production and to always have a plan B.

Text: dev.ua