In the conditions of war with Russia, Ukraine sees prospects and a chance to gain an advantage with the help of better equipment, both military and social. One of them is drones that allow you to work remotely: observe, reconnaissance, destroy the enemy. The media has long called this “drone warfare” because both sides are actively using them. However, while Russia is unable to catch up with modern developments due to sanctions, Ukraine completely dominates them. Mykhailo Fedorov has revealed the details.

An army of drones

The Minister evaluated the progress in the development of unmanned technologies in Ukraine in terms of his own production. Yes, according to him, compared to last year In Ukraine, production in some categories has increased tens of times, and in some cases hundreds of times.. The industry is actively developing, and if in the fall 7 companies were operational, now there are already 40 of them. In addition, dozens more companies are planned for which the state will sign contracts in the near future.

“We see that more than a hundred companies that produce UAVs for funds purchased by the public, the army and companies awaiting government orders are already operating in the market. New products are being developed. For example, there is an anti-shahad where more than 300 participants will share their products tomorrow, where “martyrs” will be shot more cheaply in our country. In other words, a certain technological revolution is taking place. We did a lot for this in terms of bureaucracy – we killed it when necessary. We increased the margin of companies dealing with UAVs, we removed excess taxes and VAT on component imports from UAVs.”– says Fedorov.

However, the ministry continues to work as there are new challenges ahead. Over the past year, funding has been increased “many times”. The minister does not specify specific amounts.

There is a positive dynamic, I can definitely see it. But we need more UAVs, we need to work 24/7. […] When we realize that we have enough UAVs, then we will go to the borders of 91. We won’t always be enough until we reach our limits,
– Adds Mykhailo Fedorov.

Therefore, according to the minister, it is necessary to increase production day by day, to encourage it and increase financing, and we have enough talented people for this. This is the most important thing we have – the human capital that remains in Ukraine, which cannot be ignored.

antishached hackathon

As for the aforementioned hackathon, Fedorov explains that it will concern various Ukrainian solutions that will make it possible to better hit the Iranian drones used by Russia while bombing the infrastructure. According to him, it will not be just drones.

“I think not only. For example, there may be automatic turrets that can identify acoustic targets and hit them. It may also be related to UAV detection, because detection and identification is also an important step to hit UAVs effectively. And this also affects the price, because the sooner you detect it, the sooner you can use weapons that protect a particular object and can be cheaper instead of expensive air defense, so in different categories – there will be different solutions – from detection and identification to destruction. Tomorrow we will look at these decisions and decide what to finance and what to develop “– says Fedorov.