Navigation without GPS and swarm drone solutions: How Ukraine’s Sine.Engineering gained 70 clients worldwide

Ukrainian startup Sine.Engineering develops communication modules and other high-tech solutions for drones. Their products enable UAVs to operate without GPS and effectively counter enemy electronic warfare systems. The company now has 150 employees and over 70 clients across different countries, including the largest Ukrainian drone manufacturers. For Defender Media, Bojan Stojkovski spoke with Sine.Engineering’s co-founders Andriy Chulyk and Andriy Zvirko. They discussed the advantages of their products as well as plans to close an investment round in 2025.

When Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, entrepreneur Andriy Chulyk was managing a standing desk business in the Lviv region. But within weeks, the course of his professional life shifted dramatically. The war transformed priorities overnight and created an urgent demand for innovation—particularly in defenсe tech. That sense of urgency sparked the birth of Sine.Engineering, a defenсe tech startup co-founded by Chulyk.

What began as a rapid pivot has, three years later, evolved into a leading force within Ukraine’s unmanned systems ecosystem. With a growing team of 150 employees, Sine.Engineering now designs and produces advanced hardware and software for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Their portfolio includes sophisticated data links, video transmitters, and resilient navigation systems—components currently integrated by more than 70 drone manufacturers worldwide, such as leading Ukrainian UAV maker Vyriy Drone, and defence companies that are working with the Pentagon.

A company forged by electronic warfare

Sine.Engineering’s rapid rise is a direct consequence of the brutal realities on the battlefield. As Russian forces escalated their use of electronic warfare, GPS signals became a constant target for jamming and spoofing, threatening to cripple drone operations across Ukraine. Many Ukrainian drones—built to be cheap, quickly assembled, and deployed en masse—found themselves struggling to navigate without reliable satellite guidance.

The Sine.Engineering team recognized early on that connectivity was far more than a mere technical detail, but a vital lifeline for UAV mission success, and simultaneously the most exposed vulnerability. Instead of trying to patch existing systems that relied heavily on GPS, the startup took a fundamentally different approach.

They revisited legacy aviation navigation techniques, drawing inspiration from time-of-flight methods used to track aircraft long before the advent of GPS. This approach measures the travel time of signals between transmitters and receivers, allowing them to develop a satellite-independent navigation system resilient to electronic interference.

The result is a robust, low-cost navigation solution designed specifically for GPS-denied, spectrum-contested environments—now the operational norm for Ukrainian drones. While the Ukrainian military fields thousands of drones, operational accuracy remains critical, and Sine.Engineering’s platform ensures reliable navigation where GPS signals are unavailable or compromised.

Andriy Zvirko, the company’s Chief Strategy Officer, emphasizes the broader implications of their work. “The response from defence clients has been extremely positive. Globally, we are actively engaging with defence partners interested in scalable, cost-effective, and GPS-independent drone solutions. This proves a globally growing trend of demand for attritable UAV systems,” Zvirko tells Defender.

From frontline testing to global traction

Sine.Engineering isn’t an experimental lab project—it is already actively redefining combat operations. Their components are deployed at scale across a range of drone classes, from ISR (intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance) platforms to loitering munitions and FPV (first-person-view) drones. Key products like the Sine.link communication module and the Sine.video digital video transmitter are in full production and operational use, as Chulyk explains.

“Our modules and non-GPS solutions have been deployed at scale in battlefield conditions and are integrated into active systems used by Ukraine’s defence forces,” the Ukrainian entrepreneur adds.

His words are echoed by others in the industry. A top executive at one of Ukraine’s largest drone manufacturers confirmed to Defender Media that Sine.Engineering collaborates with most major UAV producers in the country. “They’re the best independent team in Ukraine when it comes to navigation and communication,” he said.

“Sine.Engineering is among the strongest engineering teams in our community,” adds IRON cluster CEO Volodymyr Cherniuk. “We’re glad to have them in IRON—not only are they setting a high bar for frontline solutions, but they’re also already integrated into more than 10 value chains within the cluster.”

Unlike traditional defence contractors bound by long development timelines, Sine.Engineering benefits from an extraordinary advantage: real-time feedback from the battlefield. Operating in close proximity to the conflict zone, the company maintains a 24-hour feedback loop with frontline users, enabling rapid iteration and immediate problem-solving. This dynamic allows Sine.Engineering to innovate and adapt at a pace few defence suppliers can match.

“In Ukraine, unlike traditional defence contractors with lengthy development cycles, our proximity to the Ukrainian battlefield provides a 24-hour feedback loop that enables rapid iteration and immediate problem-solving,” Chulyk explains.

An upcoming seed funding aimed at boosting R&D efforts

Since its inception, Sine.Engineering has been entirely bootstrapped, relying on internal resources to fuel its growth. However, with international demand rising sharply and a new wave of technologies in the pipeline, the startup is preparing to raise its first external investment round.

“In 2025, we are preparing for a seed fundraising round to accelerate global growth and expand our R&D and production capabilities,” Chulyk confirms.

Central to this next phase of growth is the upcoming launch of next-generation technology. The company plans to scale production fivefold within the next year and is working on FPGA-based modules along with a swarm technology platform known as Pasika, expected to be operational by summer 2025.

“While we don’t publicly disclose specific numbers, we’ve built a stable monthly production volume, and our roadmap for 2025 includes a 5x scale-up of current manufacturing capacity to meet growing demand,” Chulyk says.

Additionally, the company is also looking to expand its reach, and is in the process of opening a new European unit outside Ukraine. From this new base, it aims to grow its production and sales efforts, including targeting defence manufacturers in the US that supply the Pentagon.

Ironically, what might once have been perceived as a weakness—the relatively under-regulated Ukrainian defence sector—has become a major strength in wartime. This environment allows startups like Sine.Engineering to innovate rapidly and scale efficiently, without the bureaucratic delays that often slow down defence suppliers elsewhere.

This agility has allowed the company to design systems that are not only relevant in the current conflict but are proving essential on a global scale. As militaries worldwide increasingly seek scalable, cost-effective, and GPS-independent UAV solutions, Sine.Engineering is already delivering, with its technology now powering drones on frontlines around the world—helping to shape the future of unmanned warfare.

Bojan Stojkovski

Bojan Stojkovski is a freelance journalist. Based in Skopje, North Macedonia, he reports on technology, science, and environmental issues, as well as post-war societies in the Western Balkan countries. His work has been featured in Foreign Policy, WSJ, ZDNET, New Eastern Europe, and Interesting Engineering.

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