During the Defense Tech Valley conference, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov announced that national industry had started to provide the army with new recognition drones. “” An investor created a Ukrainian Mavic, and we have already delivered the first thousand to the battlefield “, He said without dwelling on the identity of this mysterious investor.
Ukrainian drones already in the field
If the device is directly inspired by the flagship model of the Chinese DJI, it is not limited to a simple copy. Its longer flight autonomy and its ability to transport a higher charge suggests much more widened use: in addition to observation, it could drop light ammunition in support of land assaults.
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These compact drones are used on the front line for close recognition. Their simplicity of use allows infantrymen, and not only specialized operators, to implement them quickly. A particularly important asset, while the war in Ukraine is more and more based on the air support provided by these devices.
Despite the delivery of these hundreds of drones, the needs far exceed the offer. According to Fedorov, a batch of 1,000 drones is just enough to cover a month of operations for a single mechanized brigade. At the level of the Ukrainian armed forces, the needs amount to dozens, even hundreds of thousands of units.
So far, kyiv has largely depended on Chinese commercial drones, in particular DJI Mavic, which has become by default an essential tool on the front. The country now strives to reduce this dependence to a foreign supplier by supporting the emergence of a local sector. Since last year, several fairs have brought together Ukrainian industrialists to present their prototypes.
Four of the models presented by local companies have successfully passed the tests and were officially validated by the Ministry of Defense. These devices integrate components produced on site, and this goes from basic mechanical parts to sophisticated electronic systems such as digital communication modules.
At the start of the Russian invasion, the Mavic were mainly used to locate enemy positions and target the infantry thanks to improvised drops. But for two years, FPV drones (“First Person View”) have taken an increasingly important place: precision attacks have become a central element on the battlefield.
The drones are now strategic weapons. Their low cost, their adaptability and their massive dissemination have changed the way of conducting war. Ukraine as Russia make intensive use, and control of low -altitude airspace has become one of the challenges of the conflict.
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