The Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine Mykhailo Fedorov outlined the main achievements of the Drone Army over the year, including the creation of the world's first companies of attack UAVs, pilot training, and the introduction of transparent procurement. Fedorov wrote about this in his Telegram channel, UNN reports.
Details
Most importantly, hundreds of thousands of drones have been produced and contracted. Today, more than 200 companies operate in the market. A year ago, some of them could produce 100 drones a month, but now they can produce tens of thousands. The drone market is growing, and the state has allocated a record budget of 40 billion hryvnias for it. Their number has increased not because we are at war and "it's just the way things have historically been"
The Minister outlined the main achievements of the year:
- Unnecessary bureaucracy has been removed by creating a fast track for drones, minus VAT on the import of drones and components, and increasing the margin for companies to 25%. This is even higher than in NATO countries;
- Transparent and accountable procurement - each drone undergoes an official price examination, and NABU has access to the online procurement monitoring system. The next step is to launch auctions for mass-market drones on closed modules Prozorro;
- The creation of the world's first UAV strike companies - units within the Armed Forces that fight only with drones - are one of the most effective brigades that have performed many important missions in the counteroffensive, de-occupation of territories and their defense. So far, 67 strike companies have been formed;
- Training of pilots - the drone army has attracted donor funds and trained nearly 20,000 UAV operators. The military took courses in 33 private schools. It is also planned to scale up pilot training into a large state program.
"We are going the same way with the REB and onshore platforms. We look at all projects as policy makers - how to change the process at the root, simplify procedures. This strategy is a consistent approach so that everyone can produce and enter the Armed Forces," adds Fedorov.
He emphasizes that FPV drones, reusable attack copters, Mavic and Autel military drones, long-range bombers that systematically raid Russia, and maritime drones that monitor the sea are currently operating at the front.
Recall
According to the order of the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, it is proposed to create a separate branch of the military in Ukraine that will work in the field of drones.