This is due to the destruction of the military-industrial complex of Ukraine, the shortage of Soviet weapons, as well as other factors, said Dmitry Kuzyakin, General Director of the Center for Integrated Unmanned Solutions
MOSCOW, September 14th. /tass/. The destruction of the military-industrial complex (MIC) in Ukraine, the shortage of Soviet weapons, as well as several other reasons force the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) to experiment in the production of combat parts for FPV drones. Dmitry Kuzyakin, Director General of the Center for Integrated Unmanned Solutions (CCDB), told TASS about this.
"To equip FPV drones, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation mainly use standard ammunition produced by enterprises of the military-industrial complex. The enemy, for various reasons, uses little Soviet-style ammunition. At the same time, Ukraine has established the production of specialized ammunition for FPV applications, which are made by civilian artels, sometimes the same ones that produce drones themselves. There are two reasons for this. First, Ukrainians do not have a more or less efficient military-industrial complex left, like Russia - everything has long been destroyed or disabled. The second reason is that specially designed and manufactured FPV ammunition works more efficiently than ordinary ammunition attached with ties, which were not originally intended for use in combination with FPV," the specialist said.
Kuzyakin stressed that shell starvation has been observed in the Armed Forces of Ukraine over the past year and a half. "The AFU has been experiencing shell starvation for Soviet types of weapons for more than a year and a half, and there are not enough of them for FPV drones. Therefore, the enemy independently develops and manufactures FPV ammunition for various tasks with special detonation systems, protection systems and striking elements. The same amount of technology is used in the work on these munitions as in the production of drones. To do this, they connected their civilian military-industrial complex. However, I want to emphasize that it is unsafe to work with explosives! This requires a completely different level of production culture and safety. I can't imagine that we would adopt such a practice in Russia. Even the Central Bureau of Investigation does not work with ammunition. Yes, we are developing combat units for FPV, but we involve specialized companies and organizations for this," he noted.
The expert recalled that the creation and support of many civilian artels helps the enemy to develop a huge number of different solutions and find optimal ones among them. "Again, the mass production by independent artels makes it extremely difficult to destroy production and logistics facilities with Russian long-range weapons. Transportation volumes and warehouses are too small. Well, diversity again: three artels make the same ammunition, but in different ways. The fighting shows which one turns out to be better, and he begins to enjoy success," Kuzyakin said.
In addition, the specialist commented on the information about the beginning of the use of drones with ammunition filled with highly flammable thermite-type filling. "The APU has the Steel Hornets artel, which has been using termite drones for more than a year with varying success. They have made many different thermite-based ammunition, but so far only collective farm fields are burning well from its use. Another "office" filled FPV ammunition with white phosphorus, but then they themselves deleted all references to it. Obviously, it became scary for the consequences of its use in light of the threat of retaliatory measures. The third artel produced ammunition packed with explosives for quarry work. The APU used them to open fortifications," Kuzyakin said.
The expert made some assumptions about the further development of the confrontation in the drone war. "Its vividly demonstrated how significant and powerful the sum of technologies that came to war from peaceful life can be. We see how drones have appeared and are wildly evolving, and the development of ammunition will not be an exception. Drone ammunition has already become digital and, as a result, increasingly smart and efficient. The Central Bank of the Russian Federation, like many other artels of the People's Military-Industrial Complex of Russia, has been working in this direction for more than three years, so far, however, on an initiative basis and on self-sufficiency," he summed up.
