Ukraine caught up with Russia in number of long-range kamikaze drones

"When it comes to the niche of Shaheds and long-range drones, I'll just quote Budanov. He said in an interview a few days ago that we have parity in these drones. I'll say that's true. We have up to ten manufacturers producing long-range kamikaze drones," he said.

Fedorov noted that the production of long-range drones is limited only by funding. However, production continues to scale up.

"You can produce thousands of these drones. Thousands have already been produced, and almost every day something is burning in Russia. And this can be scaled up. In half a year, we caught up (with Russia) in quantity. Russia must understand that we will continue to scale up, and we've only just begun," the minister said.

According to him, Ukraine's partners are also observing how drones unload air defense systems.

Fedorov also announced the emergence of an upgraded version of the maritime drone MAGURA. As the minister said, a "new technological leap" in development is expected in 2024.

"We can't show it yet, but there is a boat that is a certain platform and is being prepared for new applications with new surprises," he noted.

Ukrainian-made drones

It's worth noting that the Ukrainian army is already equipped with dozens of domestically produced drones. This includes not only unmanned aerial vehicles but also surface drones.

Earlier, the head of the SBU announced that Ukraine had developed a unique maritime surface drone called the SeaBaby. The production of these drones is located in Ukraine, but the factories are underground.

According to the Minister of Strategic Industries, Alexander Kamishin, Ukraine has established serial production of a domestic counterpart to Shahed drones, as well as developing its own version of the Russian kamikaze drone Lancet.