The Economist: Inside Ukraine’s drone war against Putin – New types of drone are striking deep inside Russia, but scaling up is hard

8 comments

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3. TLDR:

   * Ukraine’s drone program is not run from a single command or procurement structure. Many state organizations have their own drone programs. Freelance developers are also in the mix.
   * This helps security and competition, but can make optimization and mass production difficult
   * The central government, especially the Ministry of Digital Transformation, has tried to streamline financing and remove red tape.
   * But bureaucracy, corruption and vested interests in the Ukrainian arms industry continue to act as a drag on development
   * Cheap components and electronics are hard to find. So are aviation specialists.
   * New electronic-warfare jamming boxes, fitted on tanks and other high-value assets, are meanwhile reducing the ability of Ukraine’s FPV drones to guide payloads into the most vulnerable sections of a target.
   * The government has dedicated a new budget line of 40bn hryvnia ($1.1bn) for drones, a huge sum for Ukraine.

   paywall free version: use the internet archive

4. Seems to me they been scaling up just fine

5. The Economist: life is hard. Thank you Economist.

6. What idiots are still willing to fight for Putin?!?!

   He’ll send you to the front with no equipment and then pace over your grave for a strip club parking lot.

7. This is because the West gives russia endless weapon components and billions of dollars in money for various fuels while blocking long range weapons from Ukraine.

8. Possibly, not with the Australian cardboard drone.