The drone that flew into Hrodna from Lithuania, reported yesterday by the Belarusian Interior Ministry and shown on state television, resembles the Hornet XR model produced by Lithuanian company Granta Autonomy. Lithuanian outlet Delfi contacted company director Gediminas Guoba, who acknowledged that the unmanned aircraft seen on Belarusian TV indeed looks similar to Granta Autonomy’s product.
“Yes, it is indeed our Hornet XR drone, but it appears to have been modified,” Delfi quoted him as saying.
Guoba stressed that such a drone could not have been launched from Lithuania with the company’s authorization. He added that since 2023 the firm has supplied hundreds of such reconnaissance drones to Ukraine, where some may have been captured by Russian forces.
“Therefore, the version of a provocation cannot be ruled out,” Guoba said.
The article also notes that footage aired by Belarusian television shows an older model of the drone with components and markings that do not exist on original devices. The report further questions Belarusian propagandists’ claims about the drone’s flight route, which does not match its technical specifications.
Belarusian state media claimed the drone was supposed to fly from Hrodna into Poland, turn around over Bydgoszcz, return to Belarus and then travel back to Lithuania. The distance between Hrodna and Bydgoszcz is about 400 kilometres, making the total claimed route close to 1,000 kilometres.
The authors of the report do not rule out that the drone may have been shot down in Ukraine by Russian forces and later handed over to Belarus, which could have used it for a provocation amid tensions over smuggler weather balloons and Lithuanian freight trucks.
According to Granta Autonomy’s specifications, the Hornet XR has a wingspan of 1.6 metres, a length of 0.84 metres and weighs 2.9 kilograms. Its flight range is 160 kilometres, with a maximum flight time of three hours. The maximum control distance is 30 kilometres, or up to 45 kilometres with a relay. The drone has a cruising speed of 16 m/s and a maximum speed of 25 m/s. It can perform pre-programmed missions in radio silence mode.