Codified. First Purchase Came in Hours.

Ukraine's Ministry of Defence has officially codified Aerobavovna's AB12TC aerostat complex. The system is now listed in the MoD Supply Items Catalogue with a NATO Stock Number and added to both Brave1 Market and DOT-Chain Defence — Ukraine's two principal state defense procurement platforms.

The first purchase came a few hours after the listing went live.

A unit earned eBonuses through the Army of Drones.Bonus program — rewards issued to Defence Forces personnel for confirmed combat results against Russian forces. They used those bonuses to procure an AB12TC system through Brave1 Market. An aerostat, procured through a state catalogue, paid for with government-issued credits tied to confirmed combat results against Russian forces.

That sequence — from battlefield action to state procurement to delivered system — is not a metaphor. It is how procurement now works in Ukraine.

What codification means in practice

Before codification, procuring an aerostat required custom contracting, individual approvals, and a process that varied by unit and command. Codification standardizes the path: a unit identifies the system in the catalogue, initiates procurement through the standard procedure, and the Defence Procurement Agency handles the contract and payment. No improvisation required.

Listing on DOT-Chain Defence means any brigade can select the AB12TC independently. Listing on Brave1 Market opens a second channel specifically for eBonuses — credits earned by personnel under the Army of Drones.Bonus program and redeemable for defense equipment.

The system

AB12TC lifts up to 5.66 kg to 100–700 m altitude and holds it there for up to 72 hours continuously in field conditions. Supported payload classes include digital and analogue communications relays, FPV and UAV control relay, electronic warfare systems, and electro-optical surveillance. Fill: helium. Mode: tethered.

More than 50 complexes are currently deployed with units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Special Operations Forces, and National Guard — all outside the formal state procurement system. Codification changes that.

Two larger variants — 10 kg and 25 kg payload capacity — are in the codification pipeline.

Codification is a slow process. The NSN assignment, catalogue entry, and platform approvals took time. The first sale took hours.

That gap — years of process, hours of market response — says something about where demand sits. Units know what they need. The procurement infrastructure is catching up.

Aerobavovna designs and manufactures military-grade aerostat systems for elevated connectivity — communications relay, ELINT, and antenna elevation — deployed with the Armed Forces of Ukraine.