11 drone strike companies created in AFU within Army of Drones - Fedorov

As part of the Army of Drones project, 11 drone strike companies have already been created in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov announced this on a Telegram channel, summing up the results of the year of the project, Ukrainian News Agency reports.

"We completely changed the doctrine of combat using UAVs - we created the first 11 drone strike companies in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Together with the National Guard and the SSU, several special units were launched and provided with drones. Prepared 10,000 UAV operators together with educational centers. Another 10,000 are studying right now," he said.

Fedorov added that the world's first fleet of marine drones is now being actively formed, some of the results of its work have already been reported in the news.

He noted that from the sub-project of the UNITED24, the Army of Drones transformed into a large state program for the development of national production of UAVs. According to him, government officials have eliminated almost all difficulties for drone manufacturers so that Ukrainian developers scale up.

Fedorov noted that Ukrainian companies have scaled production tenfold, and some even 100. He added that within the Army of Drones, 40 Ukrainian-made drones have access to operation and are already receiving government contracts. A year ago, there were only 7 such UAVs.

Fedorov also noted that this year the state will purchase thousands more Mavic quadcopters, which is hundreds of times more than last year.

The Deputy Prime Minister stressed that drones will be enough only when the Ukrainian army reaches the borders of 1991.

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, in July 2022, the Ministry of Digital Transformation, together with the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, announced the fundraising through the United24 platform created to collect donations in support of Ukraine for the Army of Drones.

At the end of December 2022, Fedorov said that almost a thousand drones purchased as part of the Army of Drones project are already helping the defenders of Ukraine overcome the Russian invaders.