Volkswacht Bodensee - For Ukraine's drones, names are part of the battle

The PS-1 Sun, made by Ukrainian defence technology firm SkyFall and nicknamed "pissioun" -- Ukrainian slang for "penis" -- has become almost a generic name for interceptor drones.

It has even inspired a verb to describe the fate of Russian kamikaze drones: they are now said to be "pissiouned."

At the Farnborough airshow, southwest of London, visitors stopped to photograph a new version of the PS-1 Sun on Monday.

A SkyFall spokesperson, wearing a "Pissioun" T-shirt and hiding his face with a balaclava, presented the company's latest model: the PS-1 Sun Jet Killer, designed to intercept jet-powered Shahed drones used by Russia.

Combining wordplay, dark humour and expressions of anger, these names have become symbols of resistance and a way of injecting some levity into a country that has been at war with Russia for more than four years.

"We wanted to create an effective product and also boost the morale of the soldiers a little. And we've succeeded: the mythology has taken off, this drone has become a global star," another SkyFall spokesperson, who attends international defence exhibitions anonymously, told AFP.

– 'Vengeance' –

At Fire Point, another Ukrainian manufacturer specialising in long-range drones, the FP1 and FP2 officially take their names from the company's initials.

Internally, however, they stand for "Fuck Putin".

At Ukroboronprom, Ukraine's state weapons manufacturer, naming is also deliberate.

"Liutyi", a deep-strike drone used in recent attacks on Russian oil refineries and displayed at Farnborough, means both "February" -- the month Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022 -- and "furious" in Ukrainian.

Another drone is called "Palianytsia", after the traditional Ukrainian white bread. The word is notoriously difficult for Russian speakers to pronounce and serves as a wartime test to distinguish Ukrainians from Russians.

"Peklo", meaning "hell" in Ukrainian, was the name chosen by President Volodymyr Zelensky for an Ukroboronprom attack drone, a senior official at the conglomerate, who requested to remain anonymous, told AFP.

The name reflects what the official described as "vengeance for all of Ukraine and punishment" for the destruction caused by Russia, including that of Antonov An-225 "Mriya", the world's largest cargo plane and a symbol of Ukraine's aerospace industry that was destroyed in the first days of the invasion.

"This is not just yet another commercial product made to earn money. It is an object that protects us, that allows us to live one more day, that allows us to see our loved ones again," the Ukroboronprom official said.

"Many of my colleagues, when they leave home in the morning, don't know if they will return in the evening."

I.Stoeckli--VB