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FenrisDEFENCE · FD-0001
SystemsMJÖLNIR
IN PRODUCTION

Mjölnir

PRECISION EFFECT · MODULARHand-launched modular round

A grenade that flies, watches and waits. It carries like a standard hand grenade, unfolds four rotors, and puts a picture on a handheld screen so the operator can see the target before committing to it. What it does when it arrives depends on the module fitted underneath.

CARRY
GRENADE POUCH
LAUNCH
HAND
GUIDANCE
LCD, DIRECT
COMMIT
HUMAN ONLY

A thrown grenade is a decision made in advance. You commit to a room, an angle and a moment before you can see any of them, and once it leaves your hand there is no correcting it. MJÖLNIR keeps the size and the carry of a grenade and removes that constraint. It goes up, it holds, and the operator watches the picture on the guidance unit until the situation is actually understood. The airframe is the same tube as HUGINN; the difference is the interface at its waist and what gets bolted to it. One round is a camera. Another is an effect. The operator decides which goes in the pouch, and decides again, in the air, whether anything happens at all.

Contents08 SHEETS
Design intent
0101 / 06

You look before you commit

A thrown grenade is a decision you make blind. This one puts the picture on a screen in your hand and lets you fly to the point you actually meant, or bring it home having decided not to.

0202 / 06

It carries like a grenade

Tube form, grenade pouch, no launcher and no dedicated stowage. Equipment that requires its own bag is equipment that stays in the vehicle, and a round in the vehicle is not a capability.

0303 / 06

One airframe, whatever the task needs

The interface at the waist takes a sensor module, an effect module or an inert training module. The section above it does not change, so the flying, the link and the drills stay identical.

0404 / 06

A person decides, every time

There is no autonomous engagement mode, and no fire-and-forget setting to leave enabled by mistake. Loss of link aborts. This is enforced in the software and recorded, not offered as a configuration.

0505 / 06

It waits

A grenade is spent the instant it is thrown. This one holds position while the situation develops, which turns a single irreversible action into something you can watch, reconsider and time.

0606 / 06

Trains on the real thing

The inert module matches the mass and balance of the live ones, so the airframe flies the same and the drills transfer. Nobody learns the system on a simulator and meets it for the first time loaded.

How it works
N.01

What a grenade cannot do

A hand grenade is thrown at a place you have reasoned about rather than seen. Around a corner, through a doorway, over a wall: the throw is an estimate, the fuze is running, and there is no version of the next four seconds in which you change your mind.

That is an acceptable trade when the alternative is entering the room. It is a poor one when the room holds somebody who should not have been in the blast, or when the objective was two rooms further on. The cost of being wrong is paid immediately and cannot be recalled.

MJÖLNIR keeps everything about a grenade that makes it useful, which is that it is small, it is carried by everyone, and it needs no launcher. What it adds is the interval: the round goes up, the picture comes back, and the decision is made with the situation visible rather than inferred.

N.02

The interface is the product

Everything above the joint at the round's waist is the same airframe every time: the rotors, the flight controller, the link, the battery. Everything below it is selected for the task in front of you.

That split matters more than any single module. It means the flying is identical whatever is fitted, so an operator's hours transfer across the whole family. It means the training round handles like the live one. And it means a new effect is a new module rather than a new aircraft, a new set of drills and a new qualification.

It is also why the sensor fit is not an afterthought. Reconnaissance uses the same airframe, the same handset and the same drills as everything else, so the section that carries a camera today can carry something else tomorrow without anyone relearning the system.

N.03

Where the decision sits

The guidance unit is a handheld with a screen. It shows what the round sees, and it is the only thing that can commit the round to anything. There is no autonomous mode, no target-recognition step that acts on its own conclusion, and no setting that turns either of those on.

If the link drops, the round aborts. That is the designed behaviour rather than a failure case: an aircraft that continues on its own after losing contact with the person responsible for it is a different product with a different set of questions attached, and it is not this one.

This costs something. It means MJÖLNIR cannot be sent beyond the range of its own link and left to work, and it means jamming denies the round rather than merely degrading it. We think that is the correct trade for a weapon this small and this widely issued, and it is not one we are willing to configure away.

Fitted modules

One airframe, one interface

Everything above the joint stays the same whatever is fitted below it. The flying, the link and the drills do not change, so an operator’s hours carry across the whole family.

M.01
SENSOR

Day electro-optical camera, downlinked to the guidance unit. Non-explosive. The reconnaissance fit, and the same picture the other modules fly on.

M.02
FRAGMENTATION

The conventional grenade effect, delivered where you looked rather than where you guessed. Against personnel in the open and in structures.

M.03
ANTI-ARMOUR

Shaped charge for light armour and materiel. Placement matters more than mass on this target set, which is what the guidance step buys.

M.04
OBSCURANT

Screening smoke placed accurately and on time. Useful for breaking contact and for covering a move across open ground.

M.05
ILLUMINATION

Battlefield illumination held over a point rather than drifting under a parachute.

M.06
INERT

Training module. Matched mass and balance, no effect. Flies and handles identically to a live round.

Employment

Where it is used

  • 01Room and building clearance
  • 02Trench and fieldwork systems
  • 03Urban approaches and blind corners
  • 04Overwatch of a stalled advance
  • 05Counter-ambush from a halted vehicle
  • 06Observation where no aircraft is available

What it will not do

Every sensing method has a blind spot. These are MJÖLNIR’s, stated plainly. A capability you find out about in the field is worse than one you were told about here.

It is tied to its operator

The round flies on a direct link to a person watching a screen. It cannot be sent beyond that link and left to finish the job, and heavy jamming denies it rather than degrading it gracefully. That is the price of the authority model, and it is deliberate.

Small round, small effect

The module is the size the airframe can lift, which is the size of a grenade. This is a precision instrument for a point target, not a substitute for indirect fire. Expecting area effect from it will disappoint.

Weather and confined air

A micro rotorcraft is affected by wind, downdraught and turbulence around structures far more than a larger airframe. Indoors and in tight streets the flying is a skill, and it needs practising with the inert module.

It is a munition

Storage, transport, export and accounting all follow munition rules, not drone rules. The sensor and inert modules are the exception. Plan the logistics around the strictest module in the mix.

Specification
AIRFRAME
ConfigurationTube body, 4 fold-out arms, single rotor each
DeploymentOne motion, arms fold within body diameter
LaunchHand-launched, no tube or launcher required
Body diameterTBC
Length stowedTBC
All-up massTBC
EnduranceTBC
Loiter timeTBC
GUIDANCE
Operator interfaceHandheld unit, integrated LCD
PictureLive video from the round, before commit
ControlDirect manual flight, operator in the loop throughout
AuthorityHuman commit required. No autonomous engagement
Link lossAbort. The round does not proceed on its own
AbortAvailable at any point up to commit
Control rangeTBC
MODULE INTERFACE
FittingCommon mechanical and electrical interface
Change-outTool-free, at the operator's position
RecognitionAirframe reads the fitted module on power-up
Sensor moduleNon-explosive. Reconnaissance only
Effect modulesType selected by task. See module table
Training moduleInert, matched mass and balance
Module massTBC
EMPLOYMENT
RoleClose-quarters precision effect and observation
CarriageStandard grenade pouch, no dedicated stowage
OperatorsOne. No specialist crew
TrainingInert module flies the same profile
FamilyShares the HUGINN airframe and guidance unit
SafetyArming inhibited until launched and clear
Questions

Asked and answered

What buyers ask about passive detection, answered without the hedging. Anything not covered here, put to us directly.

Ask us something else
Q.01How is this different from HUGINN?

Same airframe, different half. HUGINN is the reconnaissance fit: a camera under the interface and nothing else, for looking into rooms, tunnels and ships. MJÖLNIR is the same tube with an effect module fitted instead. One family, one set of drills, one guidance unit.

Q.02Is it fired from a grenade launcher?

No. It is hand-launched. Gun-launched rounds trade internal volume for a boost off the line and need a launcher present; ours is thrown or released by hand, which is what keeps it in a standard pouch and in everybody's hands rather than only the one soldier carrying the launcher.

Q.03Can it pick its own target?

No, and there is no mode that lets it. The operator sees the picture, the operator commits, and losing the link aborts the round rather than releasing it. That is enforced in the control software and logged, not exposed as a setting.

Q.04What happens if the operator changes their mind?

Abort is available at any point up to commit. That is the entire reason the system exists: a thrown grenade cannot be recalled, and this one can.

Q.05What stops it detonating in the pouch?

Arming is inhibited until the round has been launched and is clear. It handles as a stowed munition until it is flying.

Q.06Can the modules be swapped in the field?

Yes. The interface is tool-free and the airframe recognises the fitted module on power-up. Which module goes in the pouch is the operator's decision at the point of preparation.

Q.07How long can it stay in the air?

TBC

Q.08Does it need GNSS?

No. It is flown directly by an operator on a live picture at close range. It is not navigating to a coordinate, which is what makes it usable inside structures where no satellite fix exists.

Q.09How do units train on it?

With the inert module, which matches the mass and balance of the live ones. The airframe flies identically, so handling, link management and abort drills are all practised on the real system rather than a surrogate.

Continue
Engagement

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Full performance envelopes, integration documentation and trial results for MJÖLNIR are released to qualified government and industry parties.

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