According to Newsweek on December 24, as Russia invests a lot of resources to deploy more and more drones in Ukraine, Kyiv has no intention of giving up its long-standing leading position in this fierce drone war. The Russia-Ukraine conflict is fast approaching for nearly two years.
Kyiv's Minister of Digital Transformation, Mykhailo Fedorov, told Newsweek that Ukraine is closely monitoring Russia's progress in drone development and the large resources that Russia has invested in drones.
According to the report, Kyiv takes a multi-pronged approach. It is procuring tens of thousands of first-person view (FPV) drones, developing interceptor drones, expanding protection against Russian cruise missiles, and increasing domestic drone production.
Fedorov said: "The situation at the front depends on UAVs. It's an all-weather war. ”
Kyiv has already held a series of fundraisers to raise funds for its ambitious drone program, including two "Operation Solidarity" auctions launched by the United 24 platform, Back Alive and the Single Bank of Ukraine. The initial fundraiser raised about $6.3 million in August for the purchase of 10,000 FPV attack drones, many of which are already in service on the front lines.
Earlier this month, the second round of the Solidarity campaign raised funds for the purchase of an additional 5,000 FPV drones in just three days.
The funds will purchase 3,000 FPV drones equipped with thermal imagers, and another 2,000 will be equipped with daytime cameras. FPV drones have a range of up to 22 km. The first batch of 3,000 drones will arrive in Ukraine shortly after the New Year, and the second batch will be delivered in February 2024.
Kyiv has also launched other fundraising campaigns to protect the country's cities and infrastructure from the destruction of Russia's notorious "Eyewitness" drones.
Fedorov told Newsweek that Moscow has certain types of drones that Ukraine does not yet have. He also said that "they have more money" to develop and produce a large number of drones.
Fedorov said: "It is difficult to compete with Russia in numbers. However, Ukraine is "every day" analyzing what is going well or not so well in the drone war. A lot of things, he said, depend on how quickly Kyiv can make design changes to its battlefield drones.
Samuel Bendett of the Center for Naval Analysis, a U.S. think tank, previously told Newsweek that Ukraine has "significantly increased" the production of FPV drones by raising funds to buy drones in large quantities. "With the efforts of many parties, it is very likely that tens of thousands of FPV drones will be provided to the Russian military every month," Bendert commented. ”
This is what Ukraine will face as it enters the New Year. Fedorov said that tens of thousands of drones are currently being destroyed every month, but he refused to provide more details about the number of losses in Kyiv.
Another component of Russia's drone operations is the upgrading of Iranian-designed "Eyewitness" drones.
The "Eyewitness" drone, also known as the "Geranium" drone in Russia, is known for its distinctive low hum and is capable of carrying a warhead that is fragmented or ** when it reaches its intended target. Once spotted, they are usually relatively easy to shoot down by Ukraine, but spotting them is often the biggest challenge.
The Ukrainian military said at the end of November that Russia had begun sending an improved version of the "Witness" drone over Ukrainian territory. The new version is darker in color and made of carbon fiber, making it harder for Ukrainian air defenses to spot them.
As winter approaches, the Ukrainian military has reported an increase in the number of "eyewitness" drone night attacks, as Western analysts expected.
There were reports of as many as 75 "eyewitness" drones launching a fierce attack in one night.
Fedorov said Kyiv was "developing solutions for anti-'eyewitness' drones" and said it was focusing on identifying incoming "eyewitness" drones, while developing and producing its own long-range drones.
Ukraine has been quietly investing in interceptor drones, which are designed to destroy enemy drones in the air. Fedorov said that Kiev has been intensively studying and developing this type of hardware for about a year. However, the minister was tight-lipped about other details of Kyiv's interception drone project. (Compiled by Di Lu).