“Russians are scaling up not only the production of drones but also the means of radio electronic warfare,” Andriy said, adding: “At our part of the front, radio frequencies change every two weeks. So, when the state supplies us with drones, only about 20 percent of them are usable. We constantly have to spend additional funds and time to reconfigure those drones.”
Russia is producing its long-range drones at its own version of Silicon Valley, a special economic zone in Alabuga, Tatarstan, where it has concentrated production lines for Iran’s Shahed drones, also known as Geran in Russia. The Kupol plant in Izhevsk, 1,800 kilometers northeast of Ukraine, produces long-range Garpiya drones. In addition, major drone production lines are in the Moscow region, Ekaterinburg, St. Petersburg and elsewhere.
“They aim to produce about 30,000 long-range drones of those types plus 30,000 false target drones they use to exhaust Ukrainian air defenses in 2025,” Aleksandrov said. “As for the FPV drones, Russians are aiming to produce a whopping 2 million of them in 2025.”
That’s increasing pressure on Ukraine to counter the surge in both the quantity and quality of Russian drones.
“In this war of drones, only the most dynamic side will win,” said Andriy, the drone commander.