The Ukrainian defense conglomerate Ukroboronprom has confirmed that domestic one-way attack drones are now being produced on a serial scale in Ukraine. In an interview with Ekonomichna Pravda, the Ukroboronprom CEO, Herman Smetanin, revealed that such drones have a combat radius of up to 1000 kilometers, and Ukraine’s Defense Forces place orders to procure those.
Asked whether an unnamed Ukrainian “kamikaze” drone with a 1,000-kilometer range touted by the company’s previous CEO is mass-produced in Ukraine, Smetanin said:
“It is being produced. In particular, in cooperation with foreign partners. I will not tell you where exactly for security reasons. The main thing is that they fly and explode, and the Defense Forces order them.”
The CEO says Ukroboronprom has drone variants analogous to the Iranian Shahed-series one-way attack drones that Russia massively uses against Ukraine, but the company focuses on developing more complex and high-performance drone models:
“There are many state and private manufacturers in Ukraine. We have an analog of the Shahed, and we also have more powerful models, because Shaheds don’t fly that far. We are now focusing on the production of more complex and expensive projects with high performance,” he said, adding that the record for combat range for Ukroboronprom’s explosive UAVs is approximately 1000 kilometers.
Successful use of domestic drone with 1,000 km range reported by Ukroboronprom
In addition to the production of “kamikaze” drones, Ukroboronprom has been actively involved in supporting the scaling of FPV (First Person View) drones produced by private firms. Licensing agreements have been established with three major companies to manufacture their FPV drone models, contributing to the growing drone ecosystem in Ukraine.
The FPV drones are widely used on the battlefield by both Ukrainian and Russian forces as cheap high-precision weapons, capable of hitting static or moving targets, ranging from personnel to heavy equipment.
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