In December 2023, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy set a goal to produce one million drones for the Defense Forces. The task has been completed, and the drones have already been contracted for the Defense Forces. These are, in particular, domestic FPV drones, long-range, reconnaissance and other types of drones that are already operating at the front.
“One million drones have already been contracted to our manufacturers for this year, and there will be more in total for each year. We are not disclosing all the details now, but our capacity to produce drones is constantly growing, and we are working not only with state funding, but also with partners to invest in our drone production,” Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
Drone market from scratch
During the full-scale war, Ukraine created and developed the UAV market from scratch. It all started with the Army of Drones, which, in fact, launched the development of the entire defense-tech sector. For example, while in 2022 there were only 7 drone manufacturers in Ukraine that could receive government contracts, there are now 87. In general, drone production has increased 100-fold over the past 2 years. The capacity of manufacturers will continue to increase, so funding is needed to contract drones.
“A real technological revolution has taken place in two years. We have created some of the best conditions in the world for UAV manufacturers, which has allowed us to scale production 100 times,” says Mykhailo Fedorov, Deputy Prime Minister for Innovation, Education, Science and Technology.
The active development of the drone market is the result of policy making. During this time, the government has adopted more than 20 necessary laws and regulations. In particular, they have simplified the approval of UAVs for operation, increased the margin to 25%, removed additional permits, simplified the write-off of UAVs, etc. All this allowed manufacturers to scale up production and openly compete for government contracts, and the state to purchase drones on the most favorable terms.
The missile program
As of today, 96% of drones purchased by the state are made in Ukraine. Now the focus of government policy is on the missile program, which will change the balance of power in countering Russian aggression.
As you know, Russia continues to shell Ukrainian cities with missiles of various calibers and ranges: cruise, land- and sea-based ballistic missiles. At the same time, the Ukrainian Armed Forces do not yet have long-range missiles in service. And our Western partners are hesitant to provide them and allow them to hit military targets deep in Russia’s territory.
That is why it is time to use Ukrainian developments, especially since they are available, as the Yuzhmash plant in Dnipro has even produced intercontinental ballistic missiles. And it’s time to increase the production of Neptune missiles, which proved themselves during the war.
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