MOSCOW, Sept 19 (Askume) – Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia will boost drone production almost tenfold to around 1.4 million this year to ensure victory for its armed forces in Ukraine.
Since Russia sent thousands of troops into Ukraine in February 2022, the war has been dominated by artillery fire and drone strikes along 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) of heavily fortified border and has involved hundreds of thousands of troops.
This conflict is a hotbed for drone development and an example of the importance of drones in modern warfare, from terrorizing infantry and gathering intelligence to damaging infrastructure and attacking ammunition depots.
“A total of about 140,000 drones of various types will be delivered to the armed forces by 2023,” Putin said.
“Whoever responds faster to these requirements on the battlefield will win,” Putin said at a conference on drone production in St. Petersburg.
Both Russia and Ukraine have purchased drones abroad and increased production, and drone videos depict the horrors of the battlefield, showing deadly attacks on infantry, artillery and tanks.
eyes in the sky
Inexpensive first-person view (FPV) drones, originally developed for civilian racers and controlled by a ground-based pilot, often hit targets packed with explosives.
For just a few hundred dollars, soldiers on both sides can inflict massive damage on each other. On Wednesday, a massive Ukrainian drone attack on Russia caused a seismic-sized explosion at a major weapons depot in the Tver region.
Putin said Russia is making progress in drone technology almost every week and it also needs to develop drone protection technology, which is basically technology that detects, confuses and then shoots down attacking drones.
“The main task is to produce various types of aerial drones so that mass production can begin as soon as possible,” Putin said.
