Ukrainian UAV manufacturers are second in number of applications for Drone Coalition tenders

25 October, 2024 Illustration photo of FPV drone. Photo from open sources The Ukrainian drone companies have become the second largest number of bidders in the second series of tenders announced by the UK as part of the Drone Coalition.

Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine for Digitalization Kateryna Chernohorenko reported on this. In September, it became known that the Ukrainian producers had been admitted to these international tenders for the first time. They included two lots: for the production of the advanced FPV drones with autonomous functions and the stable communication and interceptor drones.

"26% of the submitted proposals for the advanced FPV drones come from our inventors," Chernohorenko said.

Illustrative photo of an FPV drone. Photo from open sources

According to her, scaling up drone production both in Ukraine and in Western countries will help create an asymmetric technological advantage over the Russian occupiers in the long run. The Deputy Minister noted that compared to the first series of tenders, that time there had been fewer applications.

At the same time, the quality of the proposed solutions is much higher. This is due to a change in the approach to the tender. The description of the technical requirements also includes the user scenarios that outline the problem to be solved technologically.

"This approach encourages the search for the best, and in this sense, the tender becomes an incubator for new technologies," the statement said. The call for the applications for the production of the advanced FPV drones ended last week. However, the proposals for the creation of interceptor drones are still being collected.

Applications can be submitted until November 11 on the website of the UK Ministry of Defence.

A batch of drones for Ukraine as part of the Drone Coalition. July, 2024. Photo credits: Andris Spruds

The Ministry of Defense recalled that the Drone Coalition had been established in February 2024 during the nineteenth meeting in the Ramstein format at the initiative of Latvia.

It is coordinated jointly with the United Kingdom. Currently, 16 partner countries have joined the initiative. As part of the coalition, Ukraine has already received thousands of drones.

It is expected that the funds already accumulated by the initiative in the amount of EUR71 million will be used to purchase and deliver another 20,000 to 30,000 drones.