Ukraine says it is launching a new supply model to get drones to troops faster.
Its defense minister said the system would reduce delivery times from months to weeks.
Ukraine has ramped up its domestic drone production since the start of the war.
Ukraine is launching a new drone supply model that aims to reduce delivery times to troops from months to weeks.
Rustem Umerov, the Ukrainian defense minister, announced the new system in a Facebook post on Thursday after meeting with representatives from Ukrainian drone manufacturers.
The new model is designed to facilitate the “fast and uninterrupted supply of the best UAVs for our soldiers,” Umerov said.
As well as reducing delivery times, the system will help support manufacturers by giving them advanced orders, meaning they can plan production scaling, he added.
It is based on the DOT-Chain supply management system, which Ukraine first introduced in September as part of a push to digitize and streamline the process of supplying the military.
It’s not the first time Kyiv has tried to smooth the process of drone acquisition for its troops.
The Ukrainian defense ministry announced in January that its armed forces would receive an additional UAH 2.5 billion (around $60 million) a month to procure new drones, in a move designed to reduce brigades’ reliance on centralized acquisition efforts and allow them to purchase the equipment they need directly.
A drone operator with the Ukrainian Army’s 93rd Brigade.John Moore/Getty Images
Drone warfare has been at the core of the conflict in Ukraine since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, with both sides using the evolving technology to devastating effect.
The relatively cheap yet highly effective devices have proven to be so popular that Ukraine has significantly ramped up production efforts since the war broke out.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in October that Ukraine was capable of producing 4 million drones a year and that Kyiv had contracted 1.5 million so far in 2024. In a Facebook post, Umerov said more than 200,000 drones were delivered to Ukrainian soldiers in December alone.
The country’s burgeoning industry has led some to believe that drones could play a role in Ukraine’s postwar economic recovery and help it become a key player in the international defense market.
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