White Stork: Eric Schmidt’s Stealth Drone Startup Explained

30-second version: White Stork was the original name of a stealth drone startup founded around 2022 by Eric Schmidt, the former Google CEO, to build cheap mass-produced AI-guided drones for Ukraine. The project was later renamed (variously reported as Project Eagle and Swift Beat). The company is operationally based out of Tallinn-registered Volya Robotics, with Schmidt as the sole beneficial owner. By 2025–2026 the project is producing thousands of drones for Ukraine and has secured U.S. Army contracts for an interceptor drone called Merops — reported at $15,000 per unit with a target of $10,000 at scale, and a deployed kill rate cited at around 70%.
Best for: Anyone tracking who’s actually building the new defense-tech industry, where Schmidt’s money is going, and how commercial AI is reshaping military procurement.
You’ll get: The factual timeline, the corporate structure, the product lineup, the U.S. deployments, and the broader context against Anduril and Shield AI.
Skip if: You already follow defense procurement professionally. Daily AI fundamentals in our free Beginners in AI newsletter.

In 2022, in the months after Russia invaded Ukraine, Eric Schmidt — the former Google CEO worth roughly $30 billion — began making private visits to Kyiv. The Ukrainian government had a problem: it needed enormous numbers of cheap drones, faster than any traditional defense contractor could deliver. Schmidt had spent the prior five years building Defense Innovation Unit relationships at the Pentagon, and he had the capital to act on what he was seeing in Ukraine.

What followed was the most-quietly-built new defense company of the decade: a startup that has gone by at least three names, operates through an Estonian holding entity, and is now producing tens of thousands of AI-guided drones per year for Ukraine and the U.S. Army. Here’s the factual story.

What is White Stork?

“White Stork” was the original public name of the stealth drone-manufacturing project Schmidt began organizing in 2022. The white stork is Ukraine’s national bird, and the naming was reportedly chosen for that reason.

Press coverage in 2024 reported the project had been renamed “Project Eagle.” By 2025, the operating brand had shifted again to “Swift Beat,” the commercial entity now delivering drones to Ukraine and the United States. Public reporting has noted that an attempt to formally rename the parent company White Stork was either not completed or canceled.

The corporate structure as currently understood: the operating company Swift Beat is owned by Tallinn-based Volya Robotics OÜ, an Estonian limited liability company whose sole beneficial owner is Eric Schmidt. Estonia’s permissive business-registration regime and its political alignment with Ukraine made Tallinn a practical jurisdiction for the venture.

Who is Eric Schmidt and why is he doing this?

Eric Schmidt is a software industry executive who served as CEO of Google from 2001 to 2011, then executive chairman of Alphabet through 2017. Post-Google, he has spent the bulk of his time on defense-technology and AI policy work. Notable roles:

• Chair of the Defense Innovation Board (2016–2020) — the Pentagon advisory body that connected commercial tech with defense buyers.
• Chair of the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence (2018–2021) — produced the influential NSCAI Final Report in 2021.
• Founder of Schmidt Futures and Schmidt Sciences — philanthropic-and-investment vehicles funding scientific research and defense-relevant technology.
• Personal investor in defense-tech startups through Innovation Endeavors and related funds.

The motivation for the Ukraine work, by Schmidt’s own public statements and the reporting around it: a combination of supporting Ukraine’s defense against Russia, demonstrating what AI-first defense procurement looks like at scale, and shaping U.S. policy on autonomous weapons by producing operational data the Pentagon can act on.

It is worth noting: this is the most-visible defense-tech work happening at the founder/principal level in 2026 by anyone outside the traditional defense industry. Palmer Luckey’s Anduril and Brandon Tseng’s Shield AI are larger by valuation; Schmidt’s Swift Beat is producing more individual drones.

What does the company actually make?

• Cheap mass-produced strike drones. The original White Stork concept: AI-guided FPV-style drones at scale, designed for the Ukrainian battlefield. Cost target was reported in the $400–$1,000 per-unit range.
• Reconnaissance and surveillance quadcopters. ISR drones supporting Ukrainian artillery fire control.
• Medium-class strike drones. Longer-range fixed-wing-style platforms for deeper-strike missions.
• Merops interceptor. An anti-drone interceptor, deployed by the U.S. Army at $15,000 per unit, with a stated target price of $10,000 at scale. Reported deployments include CENTCOM (Middle East) operations against Iranian Shahed-style threats and U.S. Army units stationed in Germany.

The shared design philosophy across the lineup: low unit cost, AI-assisted guidance for terminal phase or in-flight navigation, modular payloads, and high production volume rather than per-unit sophistication. This is the opposite of the traditional defense-prime approach.

Where the AI fits in

The AI in Swift Beat / White Stork drones is reportedly used for:

• Terminal guidance. When a target is acquired or pre-designated, the onboard AI completes the engagement even if the operator’s control link is jammed. This is critical in Ukraine where Russian electronic warfare is dense.
• Navigation in GPS-denied environments. Visual-inertial navigation using onboard cameras when GPS isn’t available.
• Target recognition and classification. The system can distinguish between targets and decoys, civilian vehicles and military vehicles, with operator-defined rules of engagement.
• Mission completion under degraded conditions. If the operator is incapacitated or the link drops, the drone can complete a pre-programmed mission rather than failing safe.

Reported operational results in Ukraine and U.S. deployments cite kill rates around 70% — substantially higher than traditional FPV drone effectiveness, which has hovered closer to 25–40% depending on the operator and the environment. The AI-assisted terminal phase is credited as the primary driver.

U.S. Army deployments

The Merops interceptor — an anti-drone interceptor designed primarily to counter Iranian Shahed-style threats and similar low-cost adversary drones — has been the breakthrough commercial product for the Schmidt project. Key data points from public reporting:

Metric	Value
U.S. Army Merops procurement	13,000 units
Per-unit price (current)	~$15,000
Target price at scale	~$10,000
Deployments cited	CENTCOM area of operations, U.S. forces in Germany
Primary target class	Shahed-style loitering munitions and similar low-cost adversary drones
Reported kill rate	~70%

The procurement model the Army has used here is notable. Traditional procurement would have spent 2–5 years specifying requirements, soliciting bids, and integrating a single chosen system. The Merops deployment used a much faster commercial-style procurement that Schmidt and his policy network spent years arguing the Defense Department should adopt. The deployment is a real-world demonstration that the model works.

Production scale

Ukrainian government statements cite hundreds of thousands of Swift Beat drones being delivered to Ukraine’s armed forces over 2025–2026 with continued output increases planned. This is a much higher unit count than Anduril, Shield AI, or any other Western defense-tech startup is producing. The price-per-unit is correspondingly much lower — this is the volume-and-cost end of the new defense industry, not the high-end interceptor end where Anduril’s Roadrunner-M ($200k/unit) competes.

How does Swift Beat compare to Anduril and Shield AI?

Company	Founded	Lead figure	Position	Visible 2026 contract
Swift Beat / White Stork	2022	Eric Schmidt (sole beneficial owner)	Mass-production AI strike + interceptor drones	13,000 Merops to U.S. Army
Anduril Industries	2017	Palmer Luckey (founder); Brian Schimpf (CEO)	AI-integrated stack: software + drones + counter-UAS	$20B 10-year U.S. Army enterprise contract
Shield AI	2015	Brandon Tseng (co-founder)	Autonomous flight software (Hivemind) + V-BAT	V-BAT deployed across U.S. services + allied buyers

Each company occupies a different position in the new defense-tech landscape. Anduril is the broad-portfolio play. Shield AI is the autonomous-flight specialist. Swift Beat is the volume-and-cost play. They are sometimes competitors and often complementary — a layered defense uses all three.

FAQ

Is the company called White Stork or Swift Beat?

In commercial-product terms, the current name is Swift Beat. “White Stork” was the original 2022 codename and remains the most common informal reference, particularly in Ukrainian press. There’s no inconsistency between the two; they refer to the same Schmidt-funded project.

What is Volya Robotics?

Volya Robotics OÜ is the Tallinn-registered Estonian limited liability company that owns Swift Beat. Eric Schmidt is the sole beneficial owner. The choice of Estonian incorporation reflects Estonia’s favorable e-residency and business-registration regime and its strong political alignment with Ukraine.

How much has Schmidt invested?

Specific investment figures have not been publicly disclosed. Press coverage has cited Schmidt’s personal commitment to the project as substantial — in the hundreds of millions of dollars range — based on the production scale that has been achieved and the reported plant build-outs in Ukraine and elsewhere. Treat any specific dollar figure with caution; the project is private.

Is Swift Beat profitable?

Not publicly disclosed. Reasonable inference from the unit economics: a $15,000 Merops at 13,000 units is roughly $195 million in revenue from that contract alone, before considering Ukraine deliveries and other accounts. Whether that translates to profitability depends on R&D burn and manufacturing costs that aren’t public.

What is the “70% kill rate” figure?

Public reporting and Schmidt’s own statements have cited an approximate 70% success rate against intended targets in deployed conditions. The figure has been repeated across multiple outlets including DroneXL and various defense-press sources. As with any operational statistic from an active conflict, treat the specific number with appropriate skepticism — the direction (substantially higher than traditional FPV drones) is the part worth focusing on.

How does this fit into the broader Schmidt portfolio?

Swift Beat / White Stork is one of several Schmidt defense-relevant investments. Others include Innovation Endeavors-funded startups across the new defense-tech wave, Schmidt Futures-backed scientific work, and the broader policy ecosystem Schmidt has built through his Defense Innovation Board chairmanship and the NSCAI report. The drone project is the most-visible operational piece but it’s part of a larger strategy.

The bottom line

White Stork — now Swift Beat — is a real, operational defense company producing AI-guided drones at large scale for Ukraine and the U.S. Army. It is unusual among new defense-tech ventures in three ways: it’s built around volume-and-cost rather than high-end systems, it’s funded by a single principal (Schmidt) rather than venture capital, and it has been deliberately quiet about its operations in a way that distinguishes it from the public-facing visibility of Anduril or Shield AI.

What it demonstrates: commercial AI plus commercial-style procurement can produce battlefield-relevant systems much faster than traditional defense acquisitions. The Pentagon has been arguing about this model for two decades. Swift Beat is one of the cleanest operational proofs that it works.

For broader context: Anduril Industries Explained, AI in Military Drones: The Complete 2026 Overview, Counter-UAS Systems Explained. Daily AI fundamentals in our free Beginners in AI newsletter.

Sources

• Defense Express, Mysteries of Swift Beat: Ukraine’s New Drone Supplier.
• Interesting Engineering, Ex-Google CEO’s secret startup to build Ukraine $400 AI kamikaze drones.
• Ukrainska Pravda, Billionaire and ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt is making drones for Ukraine. What drives him? (July 2025).
• DroneXL, Eric Schmidt’s AI Drones Hit 70% Kill Rate As Commercial Tech Goes To War (January 2026).
• UAS Vision, Ukraine and Eric Schmidt’s Swift Beat to Expand Production.
• Defence-blog, Eric Schmidt’s drone killer is now protecting U.S. troops in Germany.
• National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence (NSCAI) Final Report (March 2021) — reports.nscai.gov/final-report. Eric Schmidt served as chair; the report shaped subsequent US AI defense policy and underpins much of the strategic thinking driving Schmidt’s Swift Beat operation.
• Estonian Business Register (ariregister.rik.ee) — primary source for Volya Robotics OÜ corporate filings, the Tallinn-registered holding entity for Swift Beat with Eric Schmidt as sole beneficial owner.

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