FPV drones without a soldering iron: Vienna start-up Dropforce aims to simplify drone building

The modern first-person view (FPV) drone, flown with a view from the pilot's own perspective, is regarded as the symbol of the war in Ukraine. It is cheap, quick to produce, highly effective – and has thereby changed the battlefield. At the same time, it is becoming clear that building such FPV drones is often laborious and error-prone and depends heavily on Asian supply chains. This is where Dropforce, a defence start-up from Austria, comes in.

The young company was founded by Jakub Hamdard and Christian Mühl. The two aeronautical engineers from Vienna have known each other since their school days and now want to radically simplify the construction of military FPV drones. Christian Mühl describes the ambition as follows:

We didn't want to simply develop existing drones further, but to rethink the system completely— Christian Mühl, Dropforce

Both founders share a classic background in aviation. After the HTL Eisenstadt (a higher technical college), Mühl worked at Schiebel and Airborne Technologies, among others, and most recently at Diamond Aircraft. Hamdard first worked in satellite technology at Enpulsion and later also moved to Diamond Aircraft. There the two crossed paths again and were already working on early drone concepts on the side.

From light show to military drone

At first, however, the project had nothing to do with the military – it started with drone light shows. Hamdard recalls:

The available Chinese systems were extremely expensive and their quality was often not where we wanted it to be— Jakub Hamdard, Dropforce

The duo therefore developed their own drones, initially in the classic way with purchased components and a lot of manual work. “At the beginning we ordered the parts individually and soldered them together ourselves – the way it is still done today with many tactical drones,” Mühl explains. It soon became apparent that precisely this is one of the biggest problems: assembly takes a lot of time, demands considerable technical skill and introduces numerous sources of error.

One circuit board for FPV drones instead of soldering

Dropforce drew the consequence and developed a fully integrated electronics platform: flight controller, motor control and other components now sit on a single circuit board, and soldering is practically eliminated. “Today some FPV drones still take four to eight hours to assemble. We say: it has to be simpler,” says Hamdard.

Remarkably, the founders taught themselves most of the necessary knowledge – “a great deal via the internet, YouTube and open-source communities,” as Mühl recounts. Their first fully fledged in-house development was only completed in 2025, but according to them it worked straight away.

The actual innovation goes one step further. In future, the electronics platform is to be delivered together with modular 3D-printed components. Users could then produce the required housing and structural parts themselves, tailored to different missions and requirements.

“The printer calibrates itself. You really just press the model you want,” is how Hamdard describes the process. The drone itself thus comes together almost like a modular kit.

The founders cite as an advantage that production and adaptation could be carried out in a decentralised way – in theory even close to the front line or in military workshops. The platform nevertheless remains flexible: different payloads, FPV systems or later extensions are to be integrated without great effort.

A European supply chain as the goal

Dropforce currently still uses commercially available 3D printers. In the long term, however, the supply chain is to become as European as possible, for the printing systems as well as the electronics. “Our goal is an overall system that is as European as possible,” Mühl stresses. The war in Ukraine in particular has shown how critical resilient supply chains and rapid production capacity have become, he says.

The founders see considerable potential for military use, not only in classic FPV attack drones but also in smaller interceptor drones or specialised systems. Thanks to the modular concept, the drone can be quickly adapted to different requirements and sensors; according to the current design, payloads of up to three kilograms are conceivable.

Dropforce is, however, still at the beginning. Technically, the product is ready for use and tested, the founders say; they are now looking for pilot customers and partners with whom it can be developed further against real operational requirements. Hamdard: “We now need feedback from the field.” And further: “Only then can you see what works in real operations and what still needs to be improved.”

Initial talks with Austrian authorities are already under way. Beyond that, the founders hope for contacts in research, defence and industry. Both are convinced that the future of military drone systems lies less in ever more powerful platforms than above all in simple, fast and scalable production. Christian Mühl sums it up as follows:

The decisive question is no longer just how good a drone is – but how quickly and easily it can be built.— Christian Mühl, Dropforce