For 2024, 55 billion hryvnias have been allocated as the first tranche for drones for the army, the Minister of Defense said.
The Ministry of Defense aims to provide the Ukrainian Armed Forces with the maximum number of drones, so manufacturers are working at a “great pace.” This is what Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said in an interview with Suspilny, published on Sunday, December 24.
“According to the needs, we are starting to buy them (drones – ed.), manufacture them, work with partners so that they can also send them as international technical assistance. We can fulfill the entire quantity declared of volunteers and management ,” said the minister.
He emphasized that the goal of the Ministry of Defense is to provide the military with the maximum number of drones. After developing a plan for 2024, 55 billion hryvnias were allocated as the first tranche for drones for the army. The Ministry of Defense is working according to the plan – to speed up and increase the ability to buy, produce, separately from the approved 55 billion.
According to the minister, in 2024 the Ministry of Defense should handle the purchase, but the money was transferred to the State Service for Special Communications and Information Protection (SSSSZI), which reports to the Ministry of Digital Transformation.
“This year, we hope, we will transfer this obligation to the Ministry of Defense. But in order not to stop, since we are working for a common goal, SSSSZI placed an order directly from the manufacturers,” he said.
In this regard, manufacturers, according to Umerov, have been working “at a tremendous speed in recent months, because the transfer of this money, its receipt, and use have occurred in recent months.”
The minister also did not exclude that of the 50 thousand Ukrainian-made drones, the state will buy all 50 thousand.
“More. The money has recently been transferred and we are starting to work. That is, for example, 200+ types of drones, there are several manufacturers – until now, most of these manufacturers do not work in such quantities, and we have started testing this. Sometimes we look at policies, “how to do this, we are looking at how to doctrinally resolve the issue of use. There are FPV-like drones, there are bombers, there are naval drones – there are hundreds of them. We are looking at where and how to use them more effectively,” the minister assured.
As reported, at a press conference on December 19, the President of Ukraine, Vladimir Zelensky, said that Ukraine will produce one million drones for the Ukrainian Defense Forces by 2024.
Let’s remember that on December 19, at a press conference, President Vladimir Zelensky said that Ukraine will produce a million drones next year. At the same time, he was surprised by delays in the delivery of thousands of drones to the front.
And the next day it became known that Ukraine is already producing more than 50 thousand FPV drones per month.
Source: korrespondent
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