Khyzhak

Khyzhak is a Ukrainian stabilized, AI-assisted remote weapon station designed to engage drones with a 7.62 mm PKT machine gun from ground, maritime and aviation platforms.

Overview

Khyzhak, meaning "Predator" in Ukrainian, is a remotely operated combat module developed to provide a physical countermeasure against small uncrewed aircraft. Its defining feature is not the PKT machine gun alone, but the combination of stabilized fire, automated target tracking and a modular mounting architecture. The same basic module has appeared on ground robots, uncrewed surface vessels and an Airbus H125 helicopter.

The system addresses target classes that include FPV drones, Molniya UAVs, Shahed-type one-way attack aircraft and fiber-optic FPVs. The latter cannot be defeated by conventional radio-frequency jamming because their command link runs through a physical cable. Khyzhak instead attempts to track and destroy them with direct gunfire, making it a gun-based complement to electronic warfare rather than a replacement for it.

Open reporting does not establish the system's effective engagement range, sensor configuration, reaction time, production quantity or interception record. The aviation configuration is similarly documented through deliveries and released footage rather than evidence of a sustained operational program.

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