Ukraine produces up to 50 thousand tons per month. FPV drones, but Russia is producing six times as many – Forbes
Ukrainian companies produce about 50 thousand tons of the stuff every month. FPV drones are only 10-15% of the army’s needs. At the same time, Russians produce six times as many “birds”.
Forbes writes about this with reference to experts.
The production of FPV drones is relatively easy to scale – they are assembled from Chinese components, but companies are short on hands.
Ukrainian companies produce about 50,000 FPV drones a month, while Russians produce six times as many, said DroneSpace founder Maksym Sheremet. Assuming that one engineer assembles about 50 FPV drones, the industry consists of about 1000 people. To scale six times, you need six times more engineers, the entrepreneur believes.
In total, there are about 200 manufacturers of various types of drones in Ukraine. They cover only 10-15% of the army’s total needs, says Lyubov Shipovich, founder of the Dignitas Foundation. According to her estimates, about 200 thousand FPV drones are needed alone. pieces per month.
However, companies lack qualified personnel. Since Ukraine’s independence, universities have not trained enough personnel, and most of them have left for other countries.
Those engineers who were educated in the Soviet Union are not dynamic enough, and drone manufacturing is a rapidly growing industry, the publication points out. In addition, all specialists are checked for ties to Russia.
In 2022, Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute. Sikorsky enrolled 25 students in Avionics and 167 in Telecommunications and Radio Engineering. However, they will receive their bachelor’s degree in 2026. And we need specialists now. Ukraine is enrolling in drone assembly courses, but this does not solve the problem of personnel shortages.
