In the podcast “Rankova Khvylia,” Usov described a machine intended to defend airspace and strike ground targets, including on enemy territory, with guided aerial bombs. According to him, the flight altitude will exceed 13 kilometers, the payload will be about a ton, and the craft’s weight will reach 7.5 tons. He named speed and visibility as the main distinctions: “The peculiarity of this drone is that it has super-high speed and very low visibility.”
The project, according to Usov, is international, and he did not disclose the developer’s name. There is no flight-ready craft yet; individual systems and components are being tested. This format looks more like a bid for the future than a demonstration of technology, and on air the interlocutors did not specify what stage the design work is at.
Budget and investors
Usov estimated the development budget at no less than $65 million. The money, he said, is to be raised from private investors, and he spoke of a structure involving international contributors. State financing was not mentioned in the interview. The headline of the piece foregrounded the idea of benefit for the army: “If such a machine were in service with Ukraine, it would give a great advantage to the army.”
For a man who had spent the previous year and a half running a state space agency, such a turn looked unexpected, though the path to it had been prepared. Back in 2011, Usov and partners founded Gutenbergz, a company of interactive books and electronic textbooks. In 2013–2014 came Kwambio, which worked on 3D printing with ceramics. In 2014 the project won the IDCEE competition and then entered the TechStars Boston program. In 2017 Kwambio received $500,000 from Empire State Capital Partners and Impulse VC, and the Impulse VC fund, according to media reports, is linked to Roman Abramovich.
The space agency and a criminal case
Usov’s appointment to the SSAU was preceded by an investigation related to textbooks. According to the outlet 368.media, the company Gutenbergz received money through a dealer under tenders from the Mykolaiv Regional State Administration, while the textbooks themselves were distributed free of charge through the Ministry of Education. In June 2019 the State Bureau of Investigations opened proceedings in the case. On November 25, 2019, a court seized Gutenbergz’s accounts, and on December 17 of that year the SBI conducted searches at Usov’s home and office, that is, before his appointment. In the publications cited by the materials, no suspicions were personally brought against Usov, and there is no verdict in the case.
Usov won the competition for the post of head of the SSAU after the Cabinet of Ministers announced him as the winner on December 27, 2019. By an order dated January 24, 2020, he was appointed for five years with a six-month probation period. He was introduced to the agency’s staff on February 5, 2020. In 2020 Usov gave interviews to various outlets and spoke about programs related to launch vehicles and the Artemis agreements, which Ukraine joined on November 12, 2020.
He ended his work at the agency on November 16, 2020: the cabinet of ministers dismissed him under Article 87 of the law on civil service, and Mykhailo Lev became acting head. In December 2020 Usov filed a lawsuit in the District Administrative Court against the Cabinet of Ministers and the SSAU. The court opened proceedings on December 21, 2020, a preparatory hearing was scheduled for January 18, 2021, and its outcome is not stated in the materials.
After resignation
In January 2021, Deputy Prime Minister Oleh Urusky appointed Volodymyr Taftai as head of the SSAU and announced a billion-dollar program. By then Usov was already working on other projects. In early March 2021, the company Kurs Orbital was registered, and he himself remains a co-founder of Orbit Boy, a company for air-launching microsatellites. The drone stands apart in this series: in the interview with Hromadske Radio there was no mention of a connection with these companies.
In early March 2022, Space.com reported that Usov was in Odesa and warning of a threat to the Pivdenmash enterprise. The full-scale invasion had already begun by then, and the conversation about a combat drone that Usov discussed in June 2021 remained one of the episodes of his public biography.
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