Ukrainian state drone production plan, presented in late 2023 by President Zelenskyi, has been achieved with surplus, said Lieutenant General Ivan Havryliuk, Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine. The provisions of this plan included domestic manufacturers producing 10,000 medium-range attack drones, 1,000 drones with a range of over 1,000 km, and 1 million FPV drones.
"I won't specify the numbers. But all the figures for this effort, for this nomenclature, have been met with surplus," Havryliuk stated during a blitz interview with RBC-Ukraine. The result was made possible by "creating favorable conditions" for the private sector to start businesses or expand their capacity in this niche. He also admits private companies are more flexible than state-run ones, and therefore efficient.
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Defense Express points out, provided that 1 million FPV drones were produced in 10 months, Ukraine could surpass 1,200,400 drones by the end of 2024 — a record-breaking number for the domestic drone industry which aligns with predictions from key Ukrainian executives voiced earlier this year.
In the early weeks of 2024, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense purchased UAH 30 billion (~$0.7 billion) worth of UAVs, of which 95% were made locally, almost doubling the investment with another UAH 24 billion in summer.
For comparison, a total of 600,000 FPV drones were produced in 2023. In other words, in order to reach the declared million, manufacturers had to ramp up their output by 67%, from 50,000 to 83,000 FPVs per month.
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