ArroTech Announces Alliance with AltruTek Ukraine Humanitarian Drone Project
ArroTech has joined an alliance of companies to support a recently created nonprofit seeking to map unexploded ordnance (UXO) in Ukraine. Fatalities for UXO mapping and removal remain high, with one death for very 5,000 devices and an average of 90 deaths a day across Ukraine due to UXO. ArroTech and AltruTek seek to reduce and eventually eliminate fatalities and sever injuries due to UXO across the world. This process begins with the “mapping” of land to indicate the probable location of these deadly devices. AltruTek, Inc (www.altrutek.org) now leads an alliance of companies, which includes ArroTech, seeking to rapidly conduct UXO Digital Geophysical Mapping (DGM) of Ukraine. The GEON-E61 drone system designed and manufactured by ArroTech was a perfect fit for the project, capable of mapping UXO at 2 meters per second. This project targets the UXO mapping of 100,000 acres in Ukraine enabled by a fleet of 99 of ArroTech’s GEON-E61 drones. As the project funds the mapping of agricultural, residential, and urban areas, the data containing the location of surface and subsurface UXO targets will be shared via an app and connecting to Ukraine’s national database for UXO locations.
The scale of the challenge in Ukraine is unprecedented. It is estimated that it will take decades to clear the nation of UXOs, particularly across its agricultural regions which provide over 40 percent of the World Food Program’s wheat. Ukraine’s infected areas are equal to twice the size of the country of Austria. Traditional demining and mapping techniques will not meet the sheer size of this need. Altrutek identified ArroTech’s GEON-E61 drone as a “game changing” technology due to its speed and accuracy. The GEON-E61 was recently demonstrated inside Ukraine, achieving unprecedented marks in that speed and accuracy, including the locating of deadly “butterfly mines” particularly dangerous to children (as they are made mostly of plastic and look like a small toy). It can take a two-man demining team anywhere from a full day to a week or more to conduct initial mapping of a single acre. The GEON E-61 drone system can accomplish this in two hours, with the operator safely located outside the fields containing the UXO.
The Ukrainian Rapid UXO/DGM Alliance seeks to leverage the groundbreaking technology of ArroTech to empower Ukrainians to detect a wide range of deadly UXO and “remnants of war.” To do this, AltruTek has created a public campaign where even $10 donations can help. Your contributions will be critical to the success of this project, saving countless lives across Ukraine. To learn more, visit www.altrutek.org and click the Donate button on this page.
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