Drones: from the manufacturer directly to the trenches

Recently, our Supreme Commander-in-Chief Volodymyr Zelensky announced that the United States is ready to allocate 800 million dollars specifically for drones for the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

This valuable assistance could be a key factor in changing the course of the war. However, another type of weapon will not provide the same efficiency on the front line as drones.

But simply allocated funds are not enough here.

As a volunteer who has sent thousands of drones to the front, I want to make a request and a proposal to the U.S. government. Here I will also voice the opinion of the military, who for various reasons cannot publicly state it themselves.

I'll start with the main thing - we appeal to the U.S. government to provide these funds with the condition of creating a mechanism when the military units themselves will determine what types of the Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) they need. Because this is the key factor in the effectiveness of using drones on the battlefield.

Unfortunately, both the Ukrainian and NATO military industries still consider weapons according to outdated criteria - caliber, weight, flight range, conditions of use. But changes on the front happen very quickly, and the most effective weapons are not those that fly far or weigh less, but those that are adapted to the actual conditions of warfare. Those UAVs that worked "yesterday" may no longer be relevant today and may turn into junk. Technical laboratories have long been operating in advanced brigades, where soldiers resolder drones around the clock and replace outdated modules with more up-to-date ones, install fresh versions of firmware on the UAVs. And this is mostly needed by FPV-drones that came to military units from the state through centralized procurement.

Such a situation could greatly affect the combat effectiveness of the units, if it were not for the fact that fewer drones are sent to the front from the state than from volunteers. In the best case, this amount is even - 50 for 50.

And the leading domestic volunteer foundations cooperate directly with the brigades and respond to their most urgent requests. They communicate to manufacturers what drone specifications are needed on the front line, so units get exactly what is suitable for their conditions of warfare.

Recently, rating of efficiency of the attack UAV units, from the special military system "Delta", has started working, where you can clearly see which unit and which drone hit the target. This system can become the platform where military units will order drones funded by the U.S. government.

This will significantly reduce the corruption component, because military units will choose drones (or even the supplier) without intermediaries, which according to their expert opinion is the most effective.

Sometimes the practice is unclear to the military, why officials from Kyiv buy hundreds of thousands of drones in one company, and not in another, where the products are of higher quality and cheaper.

In addition, such operational activities of the Ministry of Defense take up valuable time - bureaucratic procedures, storage, logistics, etc. And these are not only lost lives, but also lost chances for peace.

I will voice the opinion of many soldiers. They believe that it is drones (or, more precisely, their number, quality and effective tactics of use) that can stop the war.

If every moving object on the battlefield is immediately destroyed by the UAV, Russia will not be able to conduct offensive actions. Because even the reconnaissance "wings" of the enemy have long been destroyed by our cheaper FPV-drones.

The high number and quality of drones will create a kilometer zone where it is impossible to conduct active hostilities. This is exactly what Ukraine needs - it will preserve its infantry and stop the advance of Russian troops.

The Ukrainian people will never forget the support of the people and the U.S. government in this existential resistance to the Russian invasion.

But our common task is to make the powerful American aid as efficient and transparent as possible. Providing the front with unmanned systems according to the scheme "from the manufacturer to the trench" will allow us to use American money precisely for victory and saving lives.

Oleh Horbachov, Ukrainian volunteer