Domestic drone production planned to reach 'hundreds of thousands' in 2024 – defense chief
In 2024, the Defense Procurement Agency plans to multiply the number of drones on the front. Ukraine plans to produce "hundreds of thousands" of various types of drones this year, Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said, according to the press center of the Ministry of Defense.
The minister of defense together with Deputy Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov took part in a meeting with the manufacturers of unmanned aerial vehicles organized by the Brave1 defense tech cluster.
During the discussion between deputy ministers Kateryna Chernohorenko and Dmytro Klimenkov and the director of the state enterprise Defense Procurement Agency Maryna Bezrukova, the plans for 2024 were voiced and in order to multiply the number of drones at the front, the enterprise is already concluding long-term contracts.
Umerov emphasized that Ukraine plans to produce "hundreds of thousands of drones of various types to perform various tasks."
"This is excluding FPV – reconnaissance, fire spotting, real-time situational awareness. The enemy knows very well what Ukrainian drones are. The very fact that our copter is hanging in the air is a fact of deterrence that makes the enemy think twice before advancing to our positions," said the defense chief.
During the meeting, it was noted that in 2023, the Ukrainian production of drones was significantly scaled up:
→ 67 models of Ukrainian UAVs received codification;
→ 58 received a state contract.
In general, the Ministry of Defense noted, there are more than 200 Ukrainian companies operating on the market that deal with UAVs or services and products in the field of drones.
At the year-end press conference, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that in 2024, Ukraine will increase the production of UAVs: "Our brigades will receive domestic drones. Regarding production, we will produce a million drones next year."
The minister of digital transformation then stated that Ukraine is capable of producing the planned 1 million drones by 2024, and maybe even more, if we include FPV.
In 2022, there were seven companies that could sell drones to the state, and now there are more than 70, Fedorov said.
On Sunday, Deputy Minister of Defense Ivan Havrylyuk said that in 2023, Ukraine managed to increase the production of domestic-made equipment and weapons, especially in certain categories, while the ambitious goal for 2024 is to increase production.