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Just add money - Ukrainian drone capacity surging.

Kyiv Independent: Ukraine able to produce over 3 million drones a year, ministry says

“Ukraine has the production capacity to produce more than 3 million drones a year, but requires financing from foreign partners, Deputy Strategic Industries Minister Hanna Hvozdiar said on July 30...

…”We have large enough production capacity, we can produce more than 3 million drones of various types today,” Hvozdiar said at a government-organized hackathon, as quoted by Suspilne.

Ukraine needs financing for the production of drones, as the state can only cover part of the budget. Funding from foreign partners, such as Canada, will help to cover the rest of the financing, Hvozdiar said.

According to Hvozdiar, Kyiv is also in talks with the U.K. to help purchase domestically-produced drones for the Ukrainian military.

In April, Denmark became the first country among Ukraine’s partners to buy weapons and equipment for Ukraine’s Armed Forces from a domestic manufacturer as part of a military aid package.

The same month, Canada announced it would donate $2.2 million to Ukraine’s drone production in collaboration with the U.K.

According to Strategic Industries Minister Alexander Kamyshin, foreign investment is needed because Ukraine’s defense industry has a capacity worth around $20 billion, but the state only has up to $10 billion to purchase weapons and equipment.

In June, the state-owned company Ukrainian Defense Industry, also known as Ukroboronprom, said it had launched the serial production of strike drones with a range of over 1,000 kilometers (620 miles).

The head of Ukrainian Defense Industry, Herman Smetanin, said that with the help of “private individuals,” the company was now able to “scale production” of long-range drones”

“Black Colonel” V. Alksnis, 08/01/24. Viktor Imantovich Alksnis, people’s deputy of the USSR, deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation of two convocations.
Why “black colonel”? That’s what the liberal media called me in the 90s, accusing me of wanting to stage a military coup.
https://t.me/s/blackcolonel2020

The day before yesterday, July 29, one of the leading aviation bloggers Fighterbomber [ https://t.me/fighter_bomber ] with five hundred eleven thousand subscribers posted a post about the motorized rifle regiment of the Aerospace Forces:

“Motorized Rifle Regiment of the Aerospace Forces.
MSP Supreme Court.
People recruited from airfields.
There are engineering and technical staff, flight crews, and flight crews present.
Armed forces, radio operators, mechanics, engine and brake engineers. Sergeants, warrant officers and officers. It seems there is even one navigator.
They fight normally. As everybody. Everything is provided. No complaints. Everything is fine.
This is approximately the same as the motorized rifle regiment of the Alexandrov Choir.
Well, or there DShB CSKA.
There must be some message or conclusion here.
But he is not there.
Today this is a given.”

This post has not yet been deleted and is present on the Fighterbomber Telegram channel at:
https://t.me/fighter_bomber/17554

Is that really true? If this really takes place, then what were the commanders thinking about when creating this motorized rifle regiment, sending the flight, flight-lifting and engineering personnel into battle as ordinary infantrymen? After all, this is the same as hammering nails with a microscope.

Do they know how much it costs to train one pilot or navigator? Yes, even one aviation engineer. In the 80s, the training of one pilot or navigator in Western currency cost more than ONE MILLION DOLLARS. Was it really possible that a pilot or navigator with military ranks from lieutenant to colonel were handed Kalashnikov assault rifles and sent to storm some village that couldn’t be found on the map?

Something similar happened during the Second World War in Nazi Germany, when airfield divisions were created in the Luftwaffe. And even then they performed mainly security functions in the rear of the Wehrmacht. And only on the eve of the collapse of Germany in the winter and spring of 1945, they were sent to the front, including pilots and navigators.

Why create a motorized rifle regiment in the VKS now? This question was partially answered by Fighterbomber himself with the phrase “Today this is a given.”

It seems that due to the large losses of our group in the Northern Military District zone and the lack of volunteers going to serve in the army under contract, a decision was made to replenish the ranks of the group with manpower by any means. This is evidenced, in particular, by the sharp increase in payment for entering contract service to one and a half to two million rubles.

And the Kremlin is afraid to undertake a new mobilization, fearing a sharp negative reaction to this from Russian society. But apparently it becomes more and more inevitable every day.

As for the large losses of our group, so that I will not be held accountable for fakes regarding the army, I am forced to refer to our President and Supreme Commander-in-Chief V. Putin.

At a meeting with the heads of world news agencies at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum on June 5, 2024, he said [ http://www.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/74223 ].

“According to our calculations, the Ukrainian army loses approximately 50,000 people per month - these are both sanitary and irretrievable losses, both. Although their irretrievable and sanitary losses are approximately 50/50.”

He immediately stated that the Russian group in the Northern Military District zone loses five times less monthly than the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Those. in fact, he admitted that we are losing approximately 10 thousand people a month - 5 thousand sanitary losses and 5 thousand irreversible.

That is, if you believe the President of the Russian Federation, in a year of hostilities we lose only 60,000 people killed, and in two and a half years of military operations, based on the figures announced by the President, we lost only ONE HUNDRED FIFTY THOUSAND PEOPLE killed.