Drones Kyiv’s advantage

UAVS: COMPENSATION FOR HAVING FEWER SOLDIERS THAN RUSSIA Zelensky wants a million units built this year.

With suit-clad employees sipping coffee, Skyeton’s offices in Ukraine’s Kyiv region look like a typical tech start-up.

But the company, whose exact location is kept secret, is actually a drone-manufacturing hub for the Ukrainian armed forces, churning out unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to support the country’s defence against the Russian invasion.

“This is a drone war,” Skyeton chief executive Andriy Fialkovsky said in an interview.

Both Ukraine and Russia have used UAVs extensively throughout the two-year conflict.

Above the battlefield in the east and south, drones fitted with high-definition cameras scope out enemy positions. At night, craft packed with explosives try to strike targets deep behind the front lines. Skyeton manufactures the Raybird, a long-range surveillance drone that can fly up to 2 500 kilometres in offline mode and up to 120km while connected to an operator.

For technical director Maksym Levkivsky, drones will be crucial to Ukraine’s chances of victory.

“The Russians have a huge advantage in terms of the number of people, tanks, planes and money,” he said. “So the only way for us to win is to have a technological advantage.”

Ukraine is striving to ramp up its defence production, an effort it sees as essential as Western allies waver over providing additional vital military aid.

But developing an entire modern arms industry is a costly, long-term task.

For now, Kyiv is banking on drones that are relatively cheap and easy to manufacture, with President Volodymyr Zelensky setting a goal of producing one million units this year.

Fialkovsky said more domestic production also allowed Ukraine to respond quickly to developments on the front lines.

“Ukraine is unfortunately the biggest playground in the world” in terms of weapons, he said, but “nobody except us knows which equipment, which technologies we need”.

Levkivsky served in the army, and the company wants to recruit more veterans. Employees have to pass a background check, with Ukraine’s arms industry a prime target for Russian espionage and sabotage.

“We are constantly under the risk of being hit,” Levkivsky said.

Skyeton’s production is spread across several sites to make it less vulnerable.

Working under bright neon lights, about 10 employees were assembling drones at the Skyeton factory. Filming or photographing their faces was prohibited, another precautionary measure.

Nearby, other employees were testing and priming them for use. Every minute spent setting up in the field exposes soldiers to enemy fire, making rapid and successful launches essential, Levkivsky said.

The number of Ukrainian drone manufacturers has more than doubled to about 200 since Russia invaded in February 2022, Ukrainian authorities said.

Microcircuits and chips need to be imported. “It is currently impossible to assemble a 100% Ukrainian drone,” said Vadym Yunyk, chair of a nationwide association of drone manufacturers and cofounder of drone maker ISR Defence.

Drone types vary, from cheap self-detonating kamikazes to more sophisticated multiuse craft.

ISR Defence’s R18 can drop explosives over enemy targets, or be used to transport ammunition or supplies to soldiers on the front lines, when delivery over land is too dangerous.

And Vampire combat drones, produced by a company of the same name, were used to deliver medicine and food to stranded villages flooded after the Kakhovka dam explosion last year.

Skyeton said it was banking on artificial intelligence to help improve navigation and better detect enemy positions.

Drone makers hope more advanced technology can tip the balance of the conflict in Ukraine’s favour. –