The Ministry of Defense will acquire UAVs for 20 billion UAH in 2023

The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine plans to spend UAH 20 billion on drone purchases in 2023.

According to Oleksii Reznikov, Defense Minister, these sum will be spent on various types of drones: aerial, ground, surface, and underwater.

The list of unmanned vehicles also includes samples manufactured by the Ukrainian defense industry, as stated by the minister in his interviews with the UNN news agency.

“This year, we planned UAH 20 billion in the budget for the purchase of drones. These are UAVs of different types. These, in particular, are the Ukrainian samples that we have adopted over the past half of the year – these are our new drones,” the minister said.

In particular, those domestically manufactured unmanned aircraft systems are the Leleka-100, А1-SM Furia, Windhover, PD-2, ACS-3. All of them went in service with the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Reconnaissance and strike UAVs are widely used in the war with the Russian Federation. As the military explains, small reconnaissance drones have become their “eyes,” but they do not “live” at the frontline for long. Therefore, military aerial reconnaissance units need a continuous supply of such means.

One of the main tasks of reconnaissance drones in the war is the adjustment of artillery fire, which allows them to strike with high accuracy. Militarny published a video showing the Leleka-100 drone guiding Western-made M982 Excalibur high-precision artillery shells.

The Naval Fleet of Drones

We previously reported that Ukraine is building the first fleet of unmanned surface vehicles, which will safeguard Ukrainian waters and keep Russian warships from active operations.

Unmanned surface vehicles of multidisciplinary purpose are a unique Ukrainian development.

Surface drones can participate in long-range reconnaissance, coastal activity surveillance, escorting and supporting the traditional navy fleet, merchant ships’ convoying, missile damage and artillery correction, protecting our base points, and counteracting amphibious operations.

The drone has an autopilot system, video subsystems, including night vision, backup communication modules and a warhead.

The system also includes a ground-based autonomous control post, a transportation and storage system, and a data center.