Russia has an enormous edge over Ukraine when it comes to drones, a Ukrainian officer said: seven Russian drones for each Ukrainian.
“In priority frontline sectors, we have the following ratio: one of our drones to five or seven enemy drones,” Fedorenko told the broadcaster, per a translation by The New Voice of Ukraine.
Fedorenko said that the tactics of the two armies differ because of that imbalance, forcing Ukraine to use its drones more carefully.
Ukraine only deploys a drone “when we have a target,” while Russia has the “privilege to work consistently,” with first-person-view (FPV) drones operating in Ukraine’s airspace in the hope of spotting something to hit.
Ukraine is lagging Russia in the drone race
Kostya Liberov / Libkos via Getty Images
Drones have become a defining feature of the war in Ukraine, with both Russia and Ukraine upping their game with new models and tactics.
Ukraine recently unveiled a range of new drones, including the jamming-resistant Backfire, the Ratel S ground drone, and the Marichka underwater drone.
It struck positions deep inside occupied territories with sea drones in Crimea paralyzing Russia’s Black Sea Fleet last August, drones blowing up Russian planes in multiple Russian regions in August, and striking several buildings in Moscow in July.
Meanwhile, Russia has ramped up its production of cheap drones and deployed long-range “Italmas” units, Lancet drones, and Iranian-made Shahed-136 drones. It is also building its own deadlier exploding drones based on the Shaheds, and is producing cheap drones using engines from Chinese e-commerce giant AliExpress.
It has also launched a series of drone attacks deep inside Ukraine, in Kyiv and Ukrainian ports.
Despite technological advances on both sides, Ukraine has fallen behind Russia in its drone effort, Melinda Haring, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, told Business Insider in October.
Haring had just returned from a trip to the front lines in Ukraine when she spoke to BI. She cited Ukraine’s lack of drone pilots, limited numbers of sophisticated drones, and poor-quality equipment as reasons for the gap.
Bob Hamilton, a retired US Army colonel and head of research at the Foreign Policy Research Institute’s Eurasia Program, told The Washington Post in August that Ukraine doesn’t have the drone capacity to “strike deep inside Russian territory at enough targets to erode Russia’s will to fight.”
