Ukraine plans to produce thousands of long-range kamikaze drones in 2024. Production volumes of such weapons are growing. This was stated by the Deputy Prime Minister for Innovations, Development of Education, Science and Technologies — Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine Mykhailo Fedorov in an interview Reuters.
"The category of long-range kamikaze drones with a flight range of 300, 500, 700 and 1 kilometers is growing. Two years ago, such a category did not exist at all." - said the minister.
According to him, the recent series of attacks on Russian oil facilities reflects the government's efforts to promote the production of long-range drones. Last year, the BRAVE1 initiative awarded about $2,5 million in grants to military technology startups, and this amount will increase tenfold in 2024.
At the same time, the vast majority of producers are private. As Fedorov noted, only one of the 10 companies whose drones can fly to Moscow and St. Petersburg is state-owned.
According to Fedorov, Ukraine's production and supply levels will increase more than 120-fold in 2023, part of a broader military push to develop and produce drones to close the gap with Russia's strike capabilities.
Fedorov emphasized that he agrees with the assessment of the head of the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, Kyryll Budanov, that Kyiv has achieved a "certain parity" with Moscow in the production of long-range drones.
"We need to act in an anti-bureaucratic way. This is the essence of a breakthrough in the technology war. We are going to continue to bet on this, to work in this direction. Because technology can really save us." — he said.
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