Industry Minister: Ukraine on Track to Make 1M Drones in 2024

In addition to the FPV drones, the country has plans to make more than 10,000 medium-range and more than 1,000 long-range attack drones in 2024, Oleksandr Kamyshin, the Ukrainian minister of strategic industries who oversees the nation’s defense industry, said Wednesday.

"Already in December, we produced more than 50,000 FPV drones," Kamyshin said via Telegram messenger. "All production capacities are ready, and contracting for 2024 begins."

The top-level assessment offers a more precise definition of Ukraine's capacity to produce the uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) that have been widely deployed by both Ukraine and Russia in the war that is nearing the two-year mark. In late October, Kamyshin told the NATO-Industry Forum in Stockholm that Ukraine was preparing to take its drone production to the next level, producing "dozens of thousands" a month by the end of 2024.

This week, a Russian special presidential envoy for digital and technological development said Russia is developing space communication systems to create control hubs for its drone use, according to state news agency Tass. 

Space-based systems will be essential for controlling large drone constellations, or swarms, Dmitry Peskov, director general of the National Technological Initiative nonprofit, said at a digital transportation conference in Moscow.

"When large groups of unmanned vehicles are created, how to control them becomes a key challenge: Who is in charge? Who transmits the signal? What does this signal go through?" Peskov said. To try to control the drone constellations through ground-based instructure is "universally recognized as futile," he said, adding that the space-control segment "will be key."