Antonov switches to drone production – Reuters

The Ukrainian state enterprise Antonov is expanding its production of drones by diversifying its main cargo aircraft production business in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Source: Reuters 

Details: Reuters has seen a presentation by Ukroboronprom [Ukrainian state defence company – ed.] made for officials in Washington in June which confirms this.

Antonov’s new UAV centre has been opened "with the aim of enhancing unmanned systems manufacturing capabilities and providing support to private manufacturers of unmanned systems in terms of expertise and services," the presentation by Ukroboronprom, which oversees Ukraine's defence sector, said.

While the manufacture of cargo aircraft will continue, the new UAV centre could better meet Ukraine's current military needs and provide more work for Antonov's engineers, a person familiar with knowledge of Antonov's plans told Reuters, who could not be named since Antonov's plans in the drone sector are "not yet publicly known".

Antonov's experience in producing cargo aircraft can also be applied to longer-range drones, the source added. This would give the Ukrainian armed forces the ability to strike deep into Russian territory

Antonov has not commented on the centre or the plans to extend production in the UAV sector. An Ukroboronprom representative refused to comment for security reasons.

In the past Antonov, which is a part of Ukroboronprom, designed and constructed drones, including the Horlytsia model, but its primary focus has been cargo aircraft.

The An-225 Mriya was destroyed early on in the war. At the time it was the world's largest cargo plane and is the aircraft for which Antonov is best known, 

The presentation, listing 26 different functions, stated that the new Antonov centre will be providing services that include experimental aerodynamic research, the creation of fully functional simulators for training UAV operators and the development of component standards=.

Reuters remarked that the presentation has coincided with a restructuring of Ukroboronprom in an effort to attract more customers and strengthen Ukraine's role in the international defence sector.

"The defence sector will be number one in Ukraine very soon," Oleksandr Kamyshin, Ukraine's Strategic Industries Minister, told Reuters, and he also said that drones were a significant part of aerospace investment.

"We have to focus on producing more weapons and ammunition locally," he added.

More broadly speaking, Ukraine intends to make greater investment in aircraft repair and construction, and Kamyshin said giants like Antonov and others will probably "only grow".

However, the presentation also mentioned that Ukroboronprom has the intention to offload about 50% of its assets, which it described as "inefficiently utilised and unrelated to production".

Meanwhile, Antonov's previously unannounced move is in line with Ukraine's aim of becoming a global drone manufacturing centre, a goal that has been fuelled by investment in the sector which has increased dramatically since the beginning of 2022.

Reuters remarks that after the Russian invasion on 24 February 2022, Ukraine relied heavily on foreign UAVs, but now the country is able to produce a significant mumber of various types of drone thanks to intensive support for new manufacturers.

Recent statements by senior officials suggest that there are around 200 drone manufacturers in Ukraine, and its Armed Forces have signed contracts for 30 new domestically produced drone models. However, most of these are with start-up companies founded after the invasion and operating on a small scale and which often lack the production capacity and industry backing needed to become major players.

Government officials in Ukraine have stated their desire to use engineering talent developed in the Soviet era to boost the economy after the war and create drones.

A smaller Ukrainian company which Reuters visited this year employs former Antonov engineers to produce long-range drones.

The production of drones could support aerospace companies like Antonov that have lost a major customer in Russia and suffered extensive damage from Russian attacks.

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