The Drone Army is one year old. In July 2022, the Ministry of Digital Transformation, together with the Ministry of Defense, the General Staff of the Armed Forces, and the State Special Communications Service, announced the first collection for the Drone Army within the UNITED24 fundraising platform.
Over the course of the year, donors from 100 countries, dozens of companies and even Star Wars actor Mark Hamill supported the drone fundraiser for Ukraine. Thanks to the strong support, we managed to purchase thousands of drones and provide them to more than 200 units. These include the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard, the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service, the Security Service of Ukraine, and the Special Operations Forces.
Over the year, the Army of Drones has evolved from a project implemented under UNITED24 into a systemic government program. Its results and plans were discussed at a meeting of government officials, UAV manufacturers, business representatives, and volunteers, the Press Office of the Ministry of Digital Transformation reports.
5 achievements of the Drone Army in a year:
1. The bureaucracy that hindered procurement, manufacturing, and logistics of drones was removed. VAT on the import of drones and their components from abroad was abolished, a training ground for training and testing drones was organized, and a simplified procedure for obtaining a permit to operate UAVs (fast-track) was introduced.
2. The mass Ukrainian production of UAVs was launched. As part of the Army of Drones, 40 models of Ukrainian drones have been approved for operation and are being delivered to the front. A year ago, there were only 7 of them.
3. 10 thousand drone operators have been trained. Together with 26 operator training centers from across the country, the Drone Army has organized training for 10,000 pilots. The second stage has now been extended to include training for another 10,000 operators, including FPV drones, as well as pilots of airplane-type strike and reconnaissance drones.
4. Changed the doctrine of fighting with drones. Together with the General Staff, we formed and manned the world’s first UAV strike companies. Currently, these are 11 units that are part of the Armed Forces and work according to a new approach to training, management, and doctrine of using drones on the front line. In addition to the launch of UAV strike companies, together with the National Guard and the Security Service of Ukraine, we have launched and are supporting several special forces units that carry out special missions using drones.
5. We launched innovative products. We have begun to form the world’s first fleet of maritime drones that are changing the rules at sea. Maritime drones can protect Ukrainian ships, conduct reconnaissance, and successfully attack targets, both moving and stationary, which have already been reported in the news.
The drone army is expected to grow to tens of thousands of drones by the end of this year. In May-July 2023 alone, the State Special Communications Service contracted 4 times more UAVs than in 2022.
Read more about Ukrainian Army of Drones: BBC: Ukraine Rapidly Expanding its Army of Drones for Front Line
