Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov recently urged people to receive free online training and participate in assembling "first-person-view (FPV)" drones at home in order to meet the Ukrainian military's high demand during the conflict, according to a combination of reports on the website of Russian Television (RT) and Ukrainska Pravda.
In a post on social media Facebook on January 13, local time, Fedorov urged Ukrainians to participate in assembling FPV drones at home. He added that during the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, the Ukrainian government changed its policy toward drone manufacturers to remove obstacles and create conditions for them, and as a result drone production began to rise. "That's why I say that the production of 1 million FPV drones per year is a realistic goal," he wrote.
Fedorov went on to write that "production is currently developing, and while the company is going strong, you can personally drive Ukraine to victory, even from the rear." He added that the Ukrainian public has been proposing initiatives to participate in assisting the Ukrainian military, and one of them is to join the so-called "People's Drones" program he announced, "an engineering course that teaches you how to assemble a 7-inch FPV drone at home. ".
Last December, Ukrainian Minister of Strategic Industry Alexander Kamyshin had said that Ukraine plans to produce one million FPV drones, more than 10,000 medium-range attack drones, and more than 1,000 long-range drones with a range of up to 1,000 kilometers by 2024.
A Ukrainian soldier holding an FPV drone
According to Fedorov, the program starts a new course every two weeks and the tuition is free. During the course, citizens can attend lectures, Zoom sessions with specialists, learn about the components needed to make a drone and the list of necessary tools and materials. After building the drone, the citizen will submit it to a professional instructor for quality check and testing. If it passes the tests and quality checks, the citizen-made drone can be handed over to the military.
"Participants in the course have already handed over 100 drones to the UAE military. Overall, more than 80 percent of the drones have performed well, while the remaining 20 percent need further adjustments." In this way, according to Fedorov, "a million drones per year" is an achievable goal.
Ivan Pavlenko, the head of the Ukrainian Army's General Staff in charge of electronic and cyber warfare, was quoted as saying in a media interview last week that Russia has the upper hand in the electronic war with Ukraine, and that "Russia produces a very large number of drones, which poses a great threat to the Ukrainian army."
Igor Lutchenko, a former Ukrainian lawmaker who is on the front lines of the battle, said Russia now launches an average of 100 drones a day to the front lines, and that as Russian (drone) production increases, it is expected that its daily drone launches will soon reach 200 or 300. Lutchenko warned that the goal of "one million drones per year" is achievable for Ukraine, but it is not enough, "Ukraine should need two to three times that number (one million)."