Ukrainian blogger and volunteer Serhii Sternenko has announced that the number of procurement contracts for FPV drones has surpassed the 10,000 mark since the beginning of the russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
According to his statement, a total of 10,064 unmanned aerial vehicles were sponsored via crowdfunding, with 8,000 already delivered to the Ukrainian Defense Forces, i.e. in the Armed Forces of Ukraine and other security forces fighting against russians.
Read more: Ukrainian FPV Drones Massively Outnumber russian Ones on the Frontline, What Can russia Do About it
"The total sum is over UAH 188 mln (USD ~5 mln – ed. Defense Express) with additional equipment and explosive payload for some of the drones," Sternenko wrote on his social media platforms. "Around 8,000 have been supplied as of now. Less than half of it was used. It means there will be more destroyed russians."
The oldest crowdfunding for FPV drones dates late November 22. That is, ten thousand drones procured in ten months.
These are only a portion of the vast multitude of FPV drones flowing into the Ukrainian forces' inventory. There are countless campaigns launched to raise money for unmanned explosive copters for the Ukrainian army, including those initiated by United24, Come Back Alive, Prytula Foundation, and other charities.
Cheap and primitive in design, First-Person-View drones should not be confused with camera drones, such as the DJI Mavic type that has also been seen a lot on Ukrainian frontlines: commercial-use copters akin to Mavic are provided with automatic fight stabilization and multiple add-ons – useful for a civilian customer but unnecessary for the military. Convenience sacrificed for cost efficiency allowed this weapon to become so widespread on the battlefields of Ukraine.
Earlier Defense Express reported that open source data indicates Ukrainians deploy FPV drones for strikes on russian positions and equipment generally three times more often than russians.
The results manifest in a plethora of videos filmed by the analog cameras of the FPV drones and UAVs watching over them from above, and also in the statistics. The latest weekly update from the Army of Drones says UAVs deployed by Ukrainian forces had hit numerous targets over the past week, including 27 tanks and 39 other armored vehicles.
Some of these strikes were inflicted by FPV drones, although the exact percentage is not specified, the estimate is that FPV drones were involved in around 20 to 25% of these attacks (based on data published by David from GeoConfirmed).
Read more: Volunteer Sergey Sternenko and Supporters Raise 19.25 Million Hryvnias to Equip Special Forces with Unmanned Aerial Bombers
