A million drones for the Armed Forces: Why these drones to nobody to manage

Drone manufacturers have proposed to amend the legislation to allow state customers to enter into contracts for training of UAV operators and to attract the private sector in this process. In Ukraine, there has been a problem with the lack of regulatory framework for training drones in private schools for the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

This is stated in an open letter, which representatives of the National Association of Defense Industry of Ukraine (NAUDI), producers of domestic drones and representatives of training centers of training of dronovians on January 12 wrote the head of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine Rustem Umerov.

The letter emphasizes that according to the task set by the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, defense enterprises should provide the Armed Forces aviation at least one million drones by the end of 2024. Therefore, the need for qualified operators for these drones will increase, and public resources for training are limited.

Currently, the Ministry of Defense does not engage in the possibilities of private drone training centers, and domestic drone producers are forced to train military personnel at their own expense. The absence of a legal framework does not make it possible to enter into contracts on public training. The letter emphasizes that the state should attract a private sector to prepare drones, as it was done to increase the production of domestic drones.

The letter proposes amendments to the Cabinet of Ministers Resolution to allow drones to purchase and conclude contracts for training of military units. "To resolve this issue, we propose not only the possibility of purchasing state customers of unmanned systems, but also the conclusion of contracts for the provision of services for training of personnel of military units determined by state customers, the management of domestic producers purchased from domestic producers," the text reads.

The head of the Prime Minister of Ukraine was proposed to adopt a new resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers to provide training services for training drones and approve the procedure for the implementation of such a project. Such steps will make it possible to create a regulatory framework and solve the problem of training drones for the needs of the Armed Forces, the authors of the open letter are confident.

We will remind, on January 9 the Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine Mikhail Fedorov told how many drones will create Ukraine in the year. According to him, the modern market of unmanned aerial vehicles requires more funding and expansion so that competition reduces the prices for the army required for the army. The head of the profile ministry also noted that the number of companies that can sell drones to the state has increased to more than seventy in the last two years.