Ukraine has drastically simplified the process of acquiring access needed to get domestically-made unmanned aerial vehicles, as announced by Ukrainian Minister of Defense Oleksii Reznikov in a social media post on the morning of December 8.
The shift became possible after a decree issued by the Ukrainian Government which supplements logistical regulations introduced in 2015 in response to the russian occupation of Crimea and military aggression in Eastern Ukraine.
Read more: What Kind of Weapon Could Hit the Engels Airfield In Saratov Oblast And an Airport In Ryazan Oblast
The new law introduces new clauses regarding the special regulations during martial law. As a reminder, martial law was imposed in Ukraine on February 24 at the start of the russian full-scale invasion and has lasted since then.
Although, the most important is in figures. For comparison, earlier the Armed Forces of Ukraine could acquire only one or two unmanned aerial systems per year. And now, two months since the decree entered force, we have the first results: over the past 30 days, seven UAS produced by Ukrainian companies were greenlighted for use by the army.
As noted by minister Reznikov, the "green light" means that the Ministry of Defense is allowed to procure the systems and the Armed Force of Ukraine put them into service directly, bypassing the procedures of military budget planning and other bureaucracy.
To make things even simpler, a special website was created for the manufacturers to list their proposals and apply for a permit.
Earlier, the whole process took 1.5-2 years; now it should be rather quick, the main point the companies must pay attention to is that their UAS has to comply with the army’s requested specifications.
Here we should note that the Ukrainian army’s need for UAVs was stressed many times already, which makes these procedure changes a significant positive step in terms of the combat capabilities of Ukraine’s military units in the field. Because a drone lives a short life on the frontline, generally it survives three to six sorties.
Read more: Dzvin-AS Automated Control System Adopted in Ukraine
