Ukraine** Zelensky recently released an ambitious 2024 project, announcing that Ukraine will produce one million FPV unmanned reconnaissance aircraft. The statement, which was released at a press conference for the local and world**, presented the achievements in 2023 and the plans for the next year.
Zelensky was in favor of expanding the production of FPV drones and stressed the need to create a professional infrastructure for efficient management of drones. This initiative is aimed at strengthening Ukraine's technological capabilities and developing Ukrainian unmanned **, including unmanned aircraft.
The Minister of Strategic Industries, Oleksandr Kamisin, stressed in his official social channel that Ukraine produces more than 50,000 FPV drones per month, and highlighted plans to increase production in the near future.
*: Unmanned reconnaissance aircraft are playing an increasingly important role on the battlefield.
An FPV drone, as the name suggests, is a type of drone called a "first-person" drone that has a pair of headsets similar to VR glasses that allow the user to see everything around them from their own field of vision. The drone also has the characteristics of low cost, high speed and large load.
This type of unmanned reconnaissance aircraft has high-speed, accurate, and efficient detection and destruction capabilities, and is called a suicide unmanned reconnaissance aircraft of the "kamikaze" type.
Ukraine's move to expand the production of FPV drones to such a scale is a strategic move for the country's current security issues. It is foreseeable that the production of FPV-type drones will increase significantly and have the potential to change the situation of the war.
Pictured: Footage of a regular drone operating.
Pictured: Binocular control screen of an unmanned reconnaissance aircraft.
The United States played an important role in this decision in Ukraine.
The U.S. Air Force's Angry Birds special combat systems team, which has provided new FPV technology for Ukraine's counterattack operations. This group of engineers, pilots, programmers has developed several multifunctional and kamikaze FPV suicide drones, which can be quickly mass-produced in Ukraine with cheap and readily available components.
American experts believe that the FPV "suicide" unmanned reconnaissance aircraft is relatively cheap compared with other advanced precision aircraft that can cost millions of dollars, but its hit rate is much higher than that of old artillery, and a "suicide" unmanned reconnaissance plane that costs only a few thousand dollars can destroy several million dollars of military equipment.
*: A bunch of Ukrainian FPV transport planes are stored in a warehouse in Lviv, Ukraine, on May 10, 2023. Unmanned aircraft of this special attack can work at ranges of up to 7 km.
*: An FPV suicide drone was developed by the U.S. Air Force's Angry Birds research team.