How Ukraine created an 'Army of Drones' to take on Russia
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
The U.S. and other allies ship lots of big-ticket weapons to Ukraine, 40-ton tanks, huge artillery guns, massive anti-aircraft systems. But Ukrainians are also using weapons they can buy on the internet and hold in one hand. NPR's Greg Myre has this report.
GREG MYRE, BYLINE: I'm south of the capital, Kyiv. And this big, open farm field of sunflowers are just beginning to sprout. And I'm here because Ukraine wanted to show how it's upgrading what's already one of its most powerful weapons in this war, drones.
(SOUNDBITE OF DRONES BUZZING)
MYRE: Drones are buzzing all around. It's like someone poked a hornet's nest. And that's exactly what Ukraine's army of drones is all about. A combined effort of the military, the government and private groups, the army of drones is led by the country's 32-year-old deputy prime minister, Mykhailo Fedorov.
MYKHAILO FEDOROV: (Through interpreter) And in order to win in this fast-paced technological war, the government needs to think and act as a technological company to be agile, to make fast decisions and to move faster.
MYRE: The Russians have a much larger and more powerful air force. But so far, the Ukrainians have mostly offset this in two key ways. First, Ukraine's air defenses shot down so many Russian fighter jets initially that Russia rarely sends them into Ukrainian airspace anymore. And second, the Ukrainians have employed drones creatively for both reconnaissance and attacks. With Ukrainian government support, private groups say they've trained 10,000 drone pilots in the past year and now plan to train 10,000 more.
FEDOROV: (Through interpreter) Drones are critically important for us. They're critical in our combat advantage. And this is why we're scaling this.
MYRE: Anton Frolov heads one of these private drone training programs, called Raven, which creates military pilots with a five-day course.
ANTON FROLOV: You have to fly in difficult conditions. You can learn to fly in one day. But you have to know how frequencies work, how this stuff works, how the enemy fighting against you.
MYRE: The Ukrainians have received cutting-edge military drones from the U.S. and Turkey. But mostly, they rely on popular Chinese models built for civilians. They can be bought straight off the internet for $2,000 or less. The Ukrainians primarily use the drones for reconnaissance, one of the reasons they often seem a step or two ahead of the Russians on the battlefield. But Ukrainians also rigged the drones with a claw to carry a small explosive, like a grenade. It can be dropped with great precision into a Russian trench or even into the open top hatch of a tank. The Russians are fighting back with electronic jamming that cuts the signal between the Ukrainian drone operator and his drone. It's become a huge problem. Again, Anton Frolov.
FROLOV: At the very beginning of this war, the flight distance of the civilian drone was from five to seven kilometers. Right now, we have only two because of jamming system, because of this system that's getting tougher and tougher against us.
MYRE: Two kilometers is just a little over a mile. And he says now you can only keep a drone aloft for a couple minutes before the Russians find it and knock it out. Ukraine, in turn, says it's working on software that can overcome Russian electronic jamming. Also, Ukraine is ramping up drone production at home, which is still limited. Maksym Muzyka makes an attack drone called the Punisher.
MAKSYM MUZYKA: The demand from our military is much bigger than the manufacturing capacity in Ukraine. So right now, for example, until the end of the year, we will be completely full with orders.
MYRE: As Ukraine scrambles to get as many drones as it can, one result is that the military now has a hodgepodge of systems.
MUZYKA: They're buying, right now, dozens of different types of drones from different manufacturers. It's a nightmare from the point of view of logistics, of training, of usage.
MYRE: But it's working. Most importantly, he says, drones are saving the lives of Ukrainian soldiers, doing the dangerous reconnaissance work troops had to do in the past.
Greg Myre, NPR News, south of Kyiv.
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