Since 2022, the Armed Forces of Ukraine have acquired a number of different types of Western-made unmanned aerial vehicles, including reconnaissance drones. The most successful fixed-wing reconnaissance drones are Germany’s Vector drones from Quantum Systems and Poland’s FlyEye drones from WB Electronics.
This opinion was expressed by an analyst and drone operator with the call sign Alex in an interview with Defense News. In his opinion, these drones perform best in Ukraine due to the direct feedback between their manufacturers and the units operating them.
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"They receive prompt feedback from these units, quickly modify the systems, and return them. These companies are also located [they have representative offices, repair and R&D centers, and are setting up production facilities] in Ukraine," the Ukrainian military emphasizes.
For instance, the German Vector drone's manufacturers were able to spot and fix its shortcomings, set up production in Ukraine, and scale it up—all thanks to its deployment in challenging conditions in the country.
As Alex notes, there are also drone models that have proven unsuccessful, whether FPV or small reconnaissance, mainly because they cannot operate effectively in areas where russian electronic warfare dominates the battlefield.
As an example, he recalls a situation during a meeting with an unnamed European manufacturer of reconnaissance UAVs, who admitted that they had never tested their product under the kind of interference that can occur on the battlefield.
Among other systems, drones from the American company Skydio proved ineffective in Ukraine [notably, a Skydio drone was used by the U.S. Army to drop a combat grenade for the first time], as they were unreliable in front-line interference conditions.
The problems with Skydio drones in Ukraine were reported last year, and the manufacturer acknowledged the poor quality of its products.
According to Alex, a key issue with today's low-quality products is the "information gap among many European and American manufacturers about current battlefield conditions and the timing of when they receive this information."
However, in his opinion, this also applies to some Ukrainian manufacturers who have no direct connection with the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
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