Ukrainian UAV manufacturers conquer new heights
25 October 15:56Ukrainian UAV manufacturers were the second largest bidders in the second series of tenders announced by the UK as part of the Drone Coalition. This was announced by Deputy Minister of Defence for Digitalisation Kateryna Chernogorenko, Komersant ukrainskyi reports.
It is worth noting that for the first time, Ukrainian manufacturers were allowed to participate in a series of international tenders consisting of two lots: for the production of advanced FPV drones with autonomous functions and stable communication and interceptor drones.
“26% of the submitted proposals for advanced FPV drones come from our inventors. And this is encouraging because we are achieving our goal of scaling up drone production both in Ukraine and in the West. This will help us create an asymmetric technological advantage over the enemy in the long run,” said Kateryna Chernogorenko.
It is worth taking into account!
The call for applications for the production of advanced FPV drones ended last week. However, proposals for the development of interceptor drones are still being collected. The deadline is 11 November. You can apply on the website of the UK Ministry of Defence.
What is the Drone Coalition?
The Coalition was established in February 2024 during the 19th Ramstein meeting. The initiative was proposed by Latvia and is coordinated jointly with the UK. The Drone Coalition currently includes 16 partner countries.
Ukraine has already received thousands of drones as part of the initiative. It is expected that another 20,000 to 30,000 drones will be purchased and delivered with the funds already accumulated by the Coalition for joint procurement (EUR 71 million).
Drone production is growing rapidly in Ukraine
According to a study by the Kyiv School of Economics and Brave1, the production capacity of the drone industry has increased 10-fold over the past year. The state has already supplied more than 1,000,000 drones to the military. In 2.5 years, the drone industry in Ukraine has grown from small volunteer initiatives to a structured and competitive sector. This is the conclusion of a study by the Kyiv School of Economics and Brave1. The key results are presented in the infographic.
Drone production in Ukraine is becoming cheaper
Thanks to a tender on Prozorro, the State Special Communications Service, for example, managed to contract 3,000 FPV drones with homing at the lowest price. The procurement was carried out under a new procedure on the closed module of Prozorro – they did not look for a specific brand of drones, but set clear requirements for size, power and quality of performance. Any company could apply and offer options.
Thanks to the competition between suppliers, the cheapest option was found and 3,000 FPVs with additional guidance were contracted for UAH 51.35 million, although the expected price for the same number of drones was UAH 135 million. Thanks to the Prozorro procurement, the price was reduced by 62%.
Ukrainians can now directly join top UAV units
The more UAVs on the frontline, the more operators, technicians and engineers there should be. Private schools are already able to provide military accounting specialities, and one of them received certification a few days ago. And a week ago, as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov reported in his Telegram, Diia launched recruitment for top UAV units – without TCC and VLC – so that motivated fighters get into a unit they trust.