Japan’s Minister of Defense, Shinjirō Koizumi, said in a post on X on Monday that the country had begun using expendable cardboard drones developed by Japanese drone manufacturer AirKamuy. Speaking during a meeting with the startup, the minister confirmed that the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force was already utilizing the company’s low-cost drones as aerial targets as Japan expands its use of unmanned systems across its military.
The drone, known as the AirKamuy 150, is a lightweight fixed-wing platform built primarily from corrugated cardboard with a water-resistant coating. Unlike conventional military drones that rely on expensive composite materials and specialized aerospace manufacturing, the AirKamuy 150 is designed around extreme affordability and mass production.
