The First Counter-Drone System Built in the Czech Republic Is Called Murmus. Europe Isn’t Ready to Use It

Czech company Czechia Systems, part of the S-Tech Ventures group, has unveiled Murmus at the Rokycany airfield near Pilsen. It is a fully mobile, modular counter-drone complex that detects, classifies, tracks and physically destroys the reconnaissance and attack drones now common on the modern battlefield, including Shahed-type kamikaze drones. Murmus is the first C-UAS system of this scale developed in the Czech Republic. It has been refined through development iterations under real combat conditions, built in close cooperation with Pulsar Expo and operators from elite Ukrainian brigades.

Drones have changed the nature of modern conflict. Shahed-type kamikaze drones now threaten civilians, convoys, airfields, critical infrastructure and national borders. Most counter-drone systems fielded in Europe today rely on software and jamming. A jammer can ground a drone or turn it around, but it cannot physically destroy it. Against Shaheds with autonomous guidance, and against swarm attacks, that is not enough.

Murmus is a fully integrated mobile complex built on Pulsar Expo’s Torsus Terrastorm platform. It brings strike vehicles with interceptors, a mobile command post, a shield radar and an operator training program together into a single operational capability. It covers the full engagement cycle, from detection and classification through tracking to physical destruction. It ships as one solution.

“At the core of Murmus is a command post with detection radar and two off-road vehicles carrying the interceptors. The whole system is fully mobile, needs no fixed infrastructure, and comes under a single contract with full lifecycle support. The customer doesn’t get a box of parts from five different manufacturers to wire together. They get a working capability for detection, classification, engagement, training and service,” says Ondřej Chlupáček, spokesperson for Czechia Systems.

Murmus is built from European components and uses European ammunition. The aim is for no part to come from outside Europe and for the system to carry no dependency on a non-European supply chain. The components come from the S-Tech Ventures portfolio, including suppliers Componentas, ARDyx, Elmech and Noontide Systems. In the current geopolitical climate, that is a security requirement, not a detail.

Europe cannot put Murmus to use as a complete system today. The rules and chain of command for protecting European critical infrastructure are built around passive, mostly software-based defense. A hard-kill system with autonomous interceptors has no place in current European regulation. There is a gap between the threat as it actually exists and Europe’s ability to answer it.

“The Shahed isn’t a theoretical threat. It’s here now. Europe is still acting as though this doesn’t concern it. The law isn’t ready for hard-kill systems, and deploying them simply isn’t legal yet. We built Murmus as the answer, as one system, from European parts, with people who know the front line first-hand. That is exactly what’s missing from European defense today,” says Anna Růžičková, CEO of S-Tech Ventures.

A key partner is Czech company Pulsar Expo, which builds the vehicles for Murmus and integrates the system on the Torsus Terrastorm platform.

“Murmus came directly out of real experience on the front line, and that experience shaped both how it’s built and how it’s used. The Torsus Terrastorm platform lets the system operate in the harshest conditions, from near-impassable terrain to destroyed urban areas. Its mobility means the complex can cover up to 200 km² and move just as quickly to defend somewhere else,” says Štěpán Pouzar, managing director of Pulsar Expo Special.

For now, the primary customers for Murmus are countries in the Middle East, where the demand for physical counter-drone defense exists today and the regulatory environment allows it to be deployed. Czechia Systems is ready to supply Murmus to European customers too, as soon as European regulation allows and the demand is there.

A European Training Center for Combat Operators, Built on the Latest Tactical and Training Doctrine from Elite Units on the Ukrainian Front

Murmus launched alongside a separate European school for combat operators of unmanned and counter-unmanned systems. It is led by veterans of Ukraine’s HUR and the elite 3rd Separate Assault Brigade, among others. One of them is a Czech volunteer from the unmanned systems battalion of the 3rd Separate Assault Brigade, call sign Fakel.

He volunteered for the Ukrainian army on the first day of the invasion, fought under AZOV regiment commanders, took part in infantry operations, and in February 2024 helped form the unmanned systems battalion of the 3rd Separate Assault Brigade. The training center operates as a separate entity within the ecosystem around Czechia Systems and will take on operators from both the public and private sectors, across Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

“Every NATO exercise with elite Ukrainian units so far has been dominated by Ukrainian UAS experience. A drone isn’t a wonder weapon. It’s a piece of kit in human hands. What wins is training, discipline, command and control, and a motivated operator with real authority to make decisions. I’m glad someone is finally seeing the value in the tactical and training doctrine of the elite brigades on the Ukrainian front. That’s exactly what we’re putting into practice,” says Fakel, Head of Strategy and Operations at the training center and a Czech fighter in Ukraine.

The center exists to give clients, and not only European ones, the kind of operational experience you can’t get any other way: reading a real battlefield, the tactics of using drones and defending against them, making decisions under pressure, maintaining equipment, and running R&D in front-line conditions. Visitors to today’s event will see a tactical flying demonstration from the school’s instructors, all experienced front-line operators.