Perennial Hornet

Perennial Autonomy describes the Hornet as a fixed-wing, mid-range strike drone in its product catalogue; Janes reported range exceeding 200 km and mostly AI-guided Ukrainian strikes.

Overview

Perennial Autonomy lists the Hornet as a fixed-wing, mid-range strike system in its official catalogue. Ukraine's 1st Azov Corps used Hornets against Russian logistics vehicles in occupied Donetsk and the Mariupol area during spring 2026, as documented by Militarnyi and the Kyiv Independent's footage analysis. On 4 September 2026, Janes reported more than 10,000 Hornets used against targets inside Russia over the preceding three months, range exceeding 200 km, and mostly AI-guided strikes. The approximately $5,000 price repeated by the Kyiv Independent is a reported figure without a published purchase contract or configuration-specific price schedule.

The name invites confusion the record should head off: this Hornet has nothing to do with Ukraine's Wild Hornets drone workshop, the Hornet interceptor marketed by Destinus, or the F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter. The Hornet, Merops and Bumblebee are named in the three-year JIATF-401 IDIQ with a $500 million ceiling, announced by the U.S. Department of War on 18 May 2026 and Perennial on 19 May. Those announcements establish a procurement framework without a Hornet quantity or allocation of the ceiling.

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