After Turkey decided to gift a Bayraktar TB2 armed drone to Lithuanians so they could donate it to Ukraine, Lithuania will now purchase four additional Estonian-made observation and surveillance drones for the Ukrainian forces.
With the additional order of four drones, Lithuania will send a total of six observation and surveillance drones to support Ukrainian forces in defending themselves from Russia’s invasion of the country. Lithuania has already bought two EOS C-VTOLs, which were named as ‘Magyla-1’ and ‘Magyla-2’, meaning the mythological goddess of death of the Baltics. The additional four drones will be named using the same style, Lithuanian news portal Delfi wrote in an article released on June 10, 2022.
The EOS C-VTOL drones are manufactured by Estonia-based company Threod Systems, which is focused on the development of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), including both fixed-wing and VTOL Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) as well as electro-optic payloads for intelligence and surveillance applications for defense.
According to the manufacturer, the electric new-generation low-noise drone, which weighs around 14.2 kilograms (31.3 lbs), has a range of up to 50-kilometer range (more than 31 miles) over 3 hours. This unmanned aerial vehicle is dedicated to various types of reconnaissance and is typically used for artillery fire control in warfare.
The additional purchase comes after Lithuanians raised around €5.9 million thanks to crowdfunding organized by Lithuanian channel Laisves TV. The funds were to be used to buy a TB2 drone to donate to Ukraine. However, Turkey decided to give the drone to Lithuania to offer to Ukraine after the Lithuanian Ministry of Defense met with its Turkish counterpart.
The funds raised by Lithuanians will now be used for the acquisition of the additional EOS C-VTOLs.