Ukraine promises to produce ‘a million drones’ for war effort in 2024

Officials in Ukraine have made a series of announcements on plans to dramatically increase drone production in the nation’s effort to drive out invading Russian forces, including a pledge to manufacture over a million first-person view (FPV) craft for attack and reconnaissance missions.

This week, Ukraine minister for strategic industries Oleksandr Kamyshin said in a social media post the nation would further ramp up production levels to “produce a million drones next year.”

That remarkably ambitious objective seeking to overwhelm Russian forces with huge numbers of Ukraine UAVs, moreover, only accounts for FPV craft. In addition to those, Kamyshin said, Ukraine will manufacture “more than 10 thousand medium-range attack drones (hundreds of km) and 1000+ drones with a range of 1000 km.”

The determined, often quite sophisticated, but occasionally ham-fisted efforts to use communication for propaganda ends by both sides during the nearly two-year war counsels a healthy dose of skepticism to be factored into any response to declarations. 

The promise to churn out over a million drones is a case in point, especially given the industrial gap needing to be closed to achieve that – and amid wartime deprivations to boot.

But in his announcement, Kamyshin also said increased production rates have already allowed Ukraine to crank out “more than 50,000 FPV drones” in December – a monthly rate that would need to be revved up by over 30% to meet the million mark. 

Still, if Kamyshin’s figures are accurate, the 50,000 level attained this month would already represent a considerable augmentation of the roughly 1,000 monthly production rate of even a few months ago.

“All production facilities are ready, contracting for 2024 begins,” he pledged.

The move by Ukraine to jack up drone manufacturing hasn’t come soon enough for frontline forces. A report this week by the Kyiv Post delves into the challenges faced – and, at times, life-and-death situations created – by the nation’s fighters from being under-equipped with aerial assets. 

While cash contributions to the Army of Drones campaign have financed the purchase of tens of thousands of ready-made consumer and enterprise drones like favored DJI UAVs – and allowed organizations to purchase and supply those to Ukraine themselves – the report says that effort will no longer suffice on its own in the intensifying war. 

“Ukraine’s most cost-effective battlefield weapon – cheap drones taking out Russian heavy weapons costing millions of dollars – is being overwhelmed by similar aircraft mass-purchased and -produced by the Kremlin, and according to drone pilots Kyiv’s continuing reliance on volunteer donations and crowdsourcing won’t allow them to hold that line in the sky much longer,” the article says.

Kamyshin’s pledge to manufacture over a million drones created especially for Ukraine fighters appears to have factored in that warning, and be putting it into fast action.

Photo: Max Kukurudziak/Unsplash