El Ministerio de Defensa de Ucrania asign\u00f3 fondos por US$ 60 millones, para que la conducci\u00f3n de Grandes Unidades de Combate (Brigadas), adquieran sus propios drones de acuerdo a necesidades espec\u00edficas, en lugar de depender de las demoras propias de las compras centralizadas. Ucrania est\u00e1 experimentando una opci\u00f3n innovadora, que permite a las tropas obtener de manera r\u00e1pida los UAS que realmente requieren para cumplir las misiones asignadas en su sector. Debe tenerse en cuenta que este pa\u00eds ha logrado una capacidad de producci\u00f3n de 4 millones de drones anuales, con la infraestructura de producci\u00f3n y montaje distribu\u00edda en diversas regiones. Por su parte, el empleo de UAS fabricados en ese pa\u00eds, constituye el 96% de los sistemas empleados por las FFAA en la guerra contra Rusia.<\/p>\n
PARIS \u2014 Ukraine\u2019s Ministry of Defence will provide its combat units with 2.5 billion hryvnia (US$60 million) of direct funding per month to procure their own drones, in a move to allow commanders in the field to buy the equipment they need rather than rely on centralized purchasing.<\/p>\n
The ministry already provided 2.1 billion hryvia directly to combat units in December for buying drones, and decided to scale up the initiative based on that experience, officials said in a Jan. 22\u00a0statement<\/a>. Allowing troops to buy unmanned aerial vehicles directly allowed for rapid fulfillment of service members\u2019 needs while increasing diversification, the ministry said.<\/p>\n \u201cCommanders of the units will have the flexibility to use these funds to acquire the drones that are the most effective for carrying out mission requirements at the front,\u201d Minister of Defence Rustem Umerov said in the statement. \u201cThis marks another step towards building a highly flexible system to ensure the military has everything necessary for Ukraine\u2019s defense.\u201d<\/p>\n Ukraine has been a crucible for drone innovation as it fights off Russia\u2019s invasion, with troops using unmanned systems for everything from intelligence gathering to strike operations, as decoys or for laying mines. Western militaries are closely studying the new ways UAVs are being used on the Ukrainian battlefield \u2013 including air-to-air drone combat, use of artificial intelligence, fiber-optic controls, bomber drones and more \u2013 to see what lessons to apply to their own forces.<\/p>\n The funds to buy drones\u00a0will be distributed among the brigades of the armed forces after Ukraine\u2019s Cabinet of ministers backed the proposal by the ministry, the MoD said.<\/p>\n Drones can be made more profitably in Ukraine than anywhere else in Europe, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy\u00a0said earlier in January<\/a>. The country raised its drone manufacturing capacity to 4 million units a year, the president said at a defense industry forum in October, compared with production of about 300,000 drones in 2023.<\/p>\n Domestic production accounted for more than 96% of the drones used by the armed forces, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said last month. The Ministry of Defence, together with Ukraine\u2019s Ministry of Digital Transformation, had\u00a0contracted<\/a>\u00a01.6 million UAVs of various types in the first 10 months of 2024, with 1.3 million drones delivered, it said in October.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n