Ukraine's Phantom Defense acquires drone-net maker KARAKURT, unveils new counter-UAV system

TLDR

• Ukrainian firm Phantom Defense acquired KARAKURT, maker of net launchers that bring down drones without detonating them.¹²
• Net interception is a cheap, non-explosive counter to drone swarms, and the deal consolidates proven battlefield kit.¹²
• Ukrainian units have deployed more than 50,000 KARAKURT kits in six months, with more than 5,000 video-confirmed interceptions.¹²

Phantom Defense, a Ukrainian defence technology company, has completed its acquisition of the developer behind KARAKURT, a line of net-launcher systems designed to physically bring down enemy drones.¹² The deal covers the full business and its team, which Phantom Defense says will strengthen protection for frontline units and infrastructure against unmanned threats as the net technology is folded into its broader counter-drone lineup.¹ Alongside the acquisition, the company unveiled a new counter-UAV system of its own, called Manhal.²

KARAKURT's net launchers fire a durable net over an incoming drone, entangling its rotors so it loses control and comes down largely intact rather than being destroyed in a kinetic strike.¹ Phantom Defense says that approach lets Ukrainian forces examine captured drones or potentially reuse them, costs less to produce and maintain than missile- or artillery-based air defence, and limits the collateral damage from blast and debris that make net interception attractive for defending infrastructure and civilian sites.¹

The systems come in several variants matched to different carrier platforms and tactics. Modules built for DJI Mavic, Matrice, and Autel platforms fire nets downward, aimed at enemy drones that have landed on rooftops or on the ground, while FPV- and specialised-platform variants fire nets forward with a target-retention mechanism to intercept fast-moving drones in flight.¹ The net modules weigh as little as 201 grams, which Phantom Defense says has little effect on a carrier drone's manoeuvrability or endurance.¹

Over the past six months, Ukrainian military units have deployed more than 50,000 KARAKURT kits, and a company programme offering free replacement consumables to units that submit video evidence of successful interceptions has logged more than 5,000 confirmed hits.¹² Phantom Defense told Ukrainska Pravda that a single State Border Guard Service crew has used anti-drone nets to down more than 500 Russian drones in that same six-month window.²

Why it matters: net interception has emerged as a cheap, non-explosive way to counter the drone swarms both sides now fly along the front, and folding a widely fielded net system into a larger counter-UAV company signals that Ukraine's defence-tech sector is consolidating battlefield-proven kit rather than leaving it as a scattered set of single-purpose startups.