Most government-ordered FPV drones are substandard / The New Voice of Ukraine

As much as 60 percent of FPV (first-person-view) drones purchased under state contracts are either faulty or require extensive rework before they can be used on the battlefield, Ukrainian activist and volunteer Serhii Sternenko said on Sept. 8.

“More than half of the 2 million FPV drones supplied by the government are sitting in warehouses, unfit for use,” Sternenko said in a Telegram post.

He blamed the problems on two factors: lengthy logistics delays of one to six months, and the General Staff’s suffocating control over specifications.

“Whether they have the right capabilities or why the motors were attached the wrong way doesn’t interest the General Staff,” he said.

“It’s either massive corruption, utter incompetence, or a combination of both. We’re the ones who have to fix it later.”

On the same day, Defense Ministry said its Defense Procurement Agency saved more than UAH500 million ($12 million) through a new FPV-drone purchasing procedure, and some manufacturers have already delivered initial batches to the Armed Forces.

On Aug. 15, Defense Minister Denys Shmyhal announced that UAH4.3 billion ($105 million) had been allocated to combat brigades for direct equipment purchases, including UAVs.

Most government-ordered FPV drones are unusable or need overhaul, Sternenko says