Inside Ukraine's tech revolution against Russian 'suicide' drones

Описание: UKRAINE is intensifying its technological efforts to counter the looming threat posed by Russian 'suicide' drones.

In a basement in downtown Kyiv away from prying eyes late last month, crowds of engineers and innovators met senior military officials to brainstorm ways to better neutralise the cheap Russian suicide drones that still devastate Ukrainian cities.

It was a rare, up-close glimpse into Ukraine's technology arms race with Russia that draws on private sector innovation seeded with state venture capital, and which is pumping out thousands of combat drones in a booming wartime industry.

Reuters was the only media invited to attend. High-ranking army officials mingled with ministers as well as engineers, scientists and eccentric enthusiasts. One man arrived in shorts and a baseball cap with a large drone under his arm.

Russia attacked Ukraine with a record monthly total of more than 300 of the drones in May, official data shows, a challenge for planners trying to protect energy supplies this winter. Last winter Russia tried to cripple the power grid with air strikes.

The Iranian drones fly so low that they can avoid detection by air defences, while their navigation systems are robust enough to make it hard to take them down with anti-drone electronic warfare weapons that disrupt radio frequencies.

The West has supplied sophisticated air defence systems to counter missile attacks, but taking down swarms of drones that cost $50,000 a piece with $1 million missiles is not ideal, officials say.

The event's organisers asked Reuters not to disclose participants' full names. One participant named Oleksandr said his team was presenting a quadroquapter that has wings in addition to being propeller-powered. He said it could fly far faster and longer than other drones.

Drones have been used widely in wars in Yemen, Syria and Nagorno Karabakh, but the scale with which they are being used in Ukraine is unprecedented, officials say.

Fedorov said Ukrainian military technology innovation had boomed during the fighting, singling out the drone industry in particular.

Shchyhol, who is overseeing procurement for the state programme, said it had purchased 15,000 drones so far, with more coming in via the Defence Ministry and others being supplied by foreign assistance and volunteers.

The total number of drones used by Ukraine on the battlefield is not known.

Fedorov said drone production was now taking place all over the country despite the threat of Russian air strikes.

He said manufacturers had been told to spread elements of production over different sites and to use bomb shelters for particular parts of output.

More than 80% of procured drones are Ukrainian-made and assembled in Ukraine, he said.

While Russia's is top-down through state organisations, Ukraine's is more grassroots, driven by private sector innovation that is more diverse and spread across many smaller-sized companies, he said.

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