Russia Ramps up Drone Production as NATO promises one million drones to Ukraine in 2024

Russia has ramped up drone production to touch thousands every month as NATO has set up a ‘drone coalition’ of its member nations wiling to equip Ukrainian forces with first person view (FPV) drones and bigger more sophisticated UAVs.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said during a speech at a NATO meeting in Brussels,

"A group of allies is going to join forces and transfer one million drones to Ukraine," Stoltenberg said. Great Britain, Sweden and the Netherlands have already joined the Coalition.

FPV drones the most in demand

FPV drones have proven highly effective on the battlefield, providing their operators with situational awareness and the ability to attack enemy positions and armored vehicles. The UK will order thousands of FPVs for Ukraine, including from British manufacturers.

In addition, the armed forces of Ukraine will receive more than a million FPV drones of domestic production; This was announced by the Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov who said that in December 2023, the state delivered 50 times more drones than in the whole of 2022.

Kalashnikov sets up new high-tech drone factory

Not to be outdone, Russia’s arms conglomerate, Rostec announced February 15 that it group company, Izhevsk Unmanned Systems of the Kalashnikov concern will increase the production of unmanned aerial vehicles in 2024 tenfold.

The growth in production volumes became possible thanks to the commissioning of a new production workshop with an area of 5800 sqm and the creation of 360 additional jobs. The new UAV production facility has CNC machines installed, and the number of machining machines has increased manifold. Thanks to the commissioning of additional capacities, the company has all the resources to further increase production volumes.

The Izhvevsk-Kalashnikov team has developed drone systems of reconnaissance and strike types after taking into account the experience of combat use (in Ukraine), a Rostec statement said.