Forbes: Ukraine produces about 50 thousand FPV drones monthly, Russia - six times more

Forbes writes about this with reference to experts.

The production of FPV drones is relatively easy to scale - they are assembled from Chinese components, but companies are short-handed.

Ukrainian companies produce about 50,000 FPV drones a month, while Russians produce six times as many, said DroneSpace founder Maksym Sheremet. Assuming that one engineer assembles about 50 FPV drones, the industry consists of about 1,000 people. To scale up sixfold, you need six times as many engineers, the entrepreneur believes.

Overall, there are about 200 manufacturers of various types of drones in Ukraine. They provide only 10-15% of the army's total needs, says Liubov Shypovych, founder of the Dignitas Foundation. She estimates that about 200,000 FPV drones are needed per month alone.

However, companies lack qualified personnel. Since Ukraine's independence, universities have not trained enough personnel, and most of them have gone abroad.

Those engineers who were educated during the Soviet era are not dynamic enough, and drone manufacturing is a rapidly growing industry, the publication points out. In addition, all specialists are checked for ties to Russia.

In 2022, Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute enrolled 25 students in Avionics and 167 in Telecommunications and Radio Engineering. However, they will receive their bachelor's degrees in 2026. And specialists are needed now. Ukraine is currently enrolling in drone assembly courses, but this does not solve the problem of staff shortages.

• In October, Yuriy Fedorenko, the commander of the UAV strike company of the 92nd Separate Mechanized Brigade named after Ivan Sirko, told Espreso that one group of Russians can use 50 FPV drones per day, but we do not have such a resource.