[1] The airframe is made of waxed foamcore (foamboard) and the drone is supplied as a self-assembly flatpack, complete with a tablet-PC control centre.
[6][7] As of March 2023[update] the PPDS is being supplied to Ukraine in quantity, in support of its war with Russia, under a funding initiative from the Australian government announced in July 2022.
[6] The individual parts are designed for ease of assembly by the user, being taped and glued together with the wings attached via heavy-duty rubber bands, as commonly done on model aircraft.
[13] The propeller is electric powered, with the onboard lithium-ion battery allowing enough endurance to fly up to 120 km (75 mi) in total.
The onboard and ground command systems are based around commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware and free open-source software (FOSS).
[13] The ground command system comprises a ruggedised Android tablet which physically connects to the drone for entering of the flightpath.
[6][7] The small size, foamboard construction and lack of communications link give the PPDS good stealth properties, making detection and interception extremely difficult.
In large numbers, the PPDS-HL can form a swarm to generate combat mass and confuse and distract the enemy.