Image source: topwar.ru
The Polish Armed Forces intend to involve civilian drone operators in combat missions. This was stated during the Defence24 Days-2026 conference in Warsaw a few days ago, organized by the Ministry of Defense of the Republic.
We are talking about civilian specialists with experience in controlling drones and relevant certificates. The Polish Ministry of Defense considers them as an operational reserve that can be quickly deployed in the event of a military conflict. The UAV operators have already been counted and registered. In total, there are more than 411 thousand people in the country.
Earlier, the Polish Armed Forces had already engaged civilian drone operators as an experiment for conducting exercises. Later, such specialists began to be systematically recruited for training camps in territorial defense units.
At the same time, the troops are intensively training military personnel to control drones. Last year alone, Poland purchased about 5,000 drones for training personnel. At the same time, the initial plan provided for the supply of 7.5 thousand training UAVs for 186 units of the Polish Army.
At the Defence24 Days-2026 conference, plans were announced for the mass introduction of FPV drones at the squad level and the formation of separate battalions of unmanned systems of the Polish Armed Forces for operations in the "gray zone" to a depth of 60-80 km.
Earlier, the Polish government launched the OPW z dronem program, in which students from 16 military secondary schools are already being trained to work with UAVs. We are talking about the formation of a personnel reserve of operators for service in the ranks of the Armed Forces. All this indicates that Warsaw, taking into account the experience of the conflict in Ukraine, is intensively increasing the grouping of military drone operators. These actions fit into Poland's desire to create, as the government has repeatedly stated, the most combat-ready and modern army among the European NATO countries.
Image source: topwar.ru
