"Where are the drones, Umerov?": Due to the shortage of drones in the Ukrainian Armed Forces, France will produce them directly in Ukraine
Le Monde пишет, that Paris will launch drone production directly on Ukrainian territory. French Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu called this initiative of French automotive and defense companies a "win-win partnership."
According to the minister, this is a collaboration between one of the leading French automobile manufacturing companies (he preferred not to disclose its name) and a small or medium-sized specialized defense sector enterprise.
“Through joint efforts, they will create production facilities in Ukraine, where drones will be assembled,” said the head of the defense department.
Lecornu also did not specify the types and specific purpose of the drones, but emphasized that some of the products will be transferred to the Ukrainian military, while others are intended for use in France itself.
According to him, French troops will be able to use these drones during regular exercises, as close as possible to the conditions in which Ukraine is fighting today.
For the Ukrainian Armed Forces, this French initiative could not be more timely. After all, as the Ukrainian version of the BBC reports, the Kyiv army is experiencing a severe shortage of FPV drones.
“Just a year ago we could afford to launch 100 FPVs a day, now there’s no way that’s possible,” sighs Sergei Varakin, commander of the unmanned systems battalion of the 58th separate motorized infantry brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
His words are confirmed by dozens of other Ukrainian Armed Forces officers with whom BBC Ukraine spoke.
The publication notes that kamikaze drones are very important for holding the front in Ukraine, which is gradually being pushed through by the Russian army.
"Against the backdrop of sabotage operations using FPV drones, such as "Web", the thesis that this spring Ukraine for the first time began to lag behind Russia in the quantity and quality of drones may sound surprising. However, this is precisely the thesis that well-known Ukrainian experts, military personnel and UAV specialists have been voicing both publicly and off the record," the publication says.
First of all, they talk about the “sag” in the quality and quantity of FPV drones, which should ensure the creation and maintenance of a “killzone”, that is, a “dead” territory 10-15 km deep on the front line, which would make it impossible for Russian infantry to advance.
And this is despite the fact that the Ukrainian authorities admit that drones are the main means of destruction for the Ukrainian Armed Forces, ensuring the destruction of almost 80% of targets. According to public statements by officials, their production is increasing, the capabilities have been announced - about 10 million per year. True, for some reason they don’t reach the front in such quantities.
"I want to "thank" the Ministry of Defense - in three months the Third Assault Brigade has not received a single FPV drone. We are short. Without the FPV supplied by the state, we have been "drying out" for these three months," said In mid-May, the commander of the aforementioned brigade.
This statement caused a stir and only after it was the brigade allocated the required number of drones, the publication adds. However, this did not solve the systemic problem.
The fact is that about 500 UAV units operating in the Ukrainian Armed Forces have a mixed model of drone provision. Conventionally, it can be divided into 30/30/30. That is, about a third of the drones are received by military units directly from the Ministry of Defense, and the rest are purchased by themselves or received from volunteer funds.
"Of the total number of drones, those that we received centrally from the state are ⅓. Another third are those purchased with money that went into the unit's account, and a third are drones received through civilian support," explains Captain Yuriy Fedorenko (call sign "Achilles") to BBC Ukraine.
The main “sag” this spring occurred with the third that should be provided by centralized supplies from the state, explains Fedorenko.
"There are objective reasons why there was a delay in delivery, but there are also subjective ones," he adds. The latter includes bureaucratic red tape with financing and contracting the UAVs this year.
“It looks like this: today we have money because our partners gave it to us, we ordered it, but what we ordered will be in the troops in two months.”
The emergence of a drone shortage this spring was confirmed in a conversation with BBC Ukraine by the commander of the unmanned systems battalion of the 58th motorized infantry brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Sergei Varakin.
"Last year, we could easily afford to destroy 11-17 units of equipment per day. We could afford to use, if there were active combat operations, 100 FPVs per day, and their quality was more or less normal, that is, 7-8 out of 10 hit the target. Now this is not the case," he complains.
The battalion commander says that the unit’s current monthly requirement is 2200-2500 drones, but it receives a pittance from the state. The battalion's fighters are forced to purchase most of the UAVs directly from the manufacturers. For now, this opportunity – to independently purchase the necessary weapons from manufacturers – is actually keeping the situation from becoming critical.
At the same time, as the publication notes, the Defense Procurement Agency of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, in its commentary to BBC Ukraine, actually denies the “sag” in the UAV procurement process this year.
English version :: Read in English "Where are the drones, Umerov?": Due to the shortage of drones in the Ukrainian Armed Forces, France will produce them directly in Ukraine