How local councils buy drones for military

One million FPV drones and thousands of medium- and long-range drones are promised by the Ukrainian government to be provided to the army in 2024. UAVs may also continue to be purchased locally by local communities. However, it is impossible to say what volumes they will supply.

BusinessCensor found out how much and what kind of drones were bought last year through the Prozorro electronic system, which models were the most popular.

According to the Dozorro monitoring portal, in 2023, local authorities purchased at least 27,000 drones worth UAH 2.6 billion for the needs of the Ukrainian army through the Prozorro electronic system.

As of the end of 2023, procurement of UAVs worth UAH 119 million had not yet been closed.

For comparison, in the first year of the war, in 2022, Ukrainian communities purchased a total of UAH 218 million worth of drones. This amount is roughly equal to the monthly volume of procurement that communities closed in the spring of 2023.

It is worth noting that procurement volumes grew significantly throughout the year. While at the beginning of 2023, in the winter months, they amounted to UAH 40-60 million per month, in June they rose to UAH 217 million, and in November, drone purchases amounted to almost half a billion in monetary terms.

Which local communities have purchased the most drones?

According to Dozorro, Kryvyi Rih and nine regional centers are among the top ten largest drone purchasers:

• Dnipro purchased 1,928 drones for UAH 329 million;

• Kryvyi Rih - 733 drones for UAH 220 million;

• Zhytomyr - 797 for UAH 161 million;

• Lviv - 1,217 for UAH 63.7 million;

• Khmelnytskyi - 1,463 for UAH 54.7 million;

• Vinnytsia - 245 for UAH 47.4 million;

• Lutsk - 417 by UAH 45.4 million;

• Ternopil - 1,603 for UAH 45.4 million;

• Poltava - 180 by UAH 38.9 million;

• Ivano-Frankivsk - 1,231 by UAH 37 million.

However, it should also be kept in mind that local communities have sometimes decided not to buy UAVs themselves, but to transfer funds to military units. For example, on November 23, the Kyiv municipal council announced that it had allocated UAH 800 million to support the Armed Forces. Of this amount, UAH 500 million was to go to the military as a direct subvention and UAH 300 million was to be allocated from the reserve fund.

These funds, according to Kyiv Mayor Vitalii Klytschko, will go to "military units in the capital that have asked the city government for help."

In general, the leaders among the regions in terms of drone purchases in monetary terms were Dnipropetrovsk region - UAH 669 million, Kyiv region - UAH 270 million, and Lviv region - UAH 250 million.

Which drones are bought the most?

The most popular among buyers are quadcopters made by the Chinese manufacturer DJI. The most popular model is the Mavic 3 with various modifications, such as Fly More Combo, Enterprise, Thermal. Chinese drones made by Autel, the American company Autel Robotics Co., Ltd. are quite common. Among them, the most frequently purchased quadcopters were the Autel EVO - Max 4T and 640T.

Domestic drones are also popular among communities, such as reconnaissance drones of the airplane type, large attack drones, and small kamikaze drones.

According to Dozorro, they bought most often:

• "Leleka-100, a reconnaissance drone created by the Ukrainian company DeViRo. The cost of such a complex varies depending on the configuration; the price of the UAV starts at UAH 1 million.

• "Valkyrja ("VALK-1"), which is also used for reconnaissance and fire control. It is manufactured by Warbirds of Ukraine LLC. The price for this system, which consists of two drones and four ground stations, was 800 thousand UAH.

• "Furia" is a complex developed by Athlon Avia LLC, designed for tactical aerial reconnaissance and artillery fire adjustment. The price of the Furia depends on the configuration (the number of UAVs and other components of the kit) but starts at UAH 3.3 million.

• The "Kazhan E620" strike drone, is equipped with a system for dropping any type of ammunition. It costs from UAH 668 thousand.

• PEGASUS ARMS 25, suitable for dropping any type of ammunition with a total weight of up to 20 kg. The cost of such a complex was UAH 880 thousand.

At least 35% of the total number of purchased drones are FPV drones.

As of January 16, according to Business Censor, utilities and local governments have signed agreements worth almost UAH 255 million for the supply of FPV drones.

However, some of them were almost immediately canceled "for technical reasons."

For example, the Dnipro Municipal Energy Service Company of the Dnipro Municipal Council terminated four contracts worth more than UAH 2.75 million with K Systems LLC of Dnipro.

The Ternopil Municipal Council has terminated the contract with Group Intrade LLC due to "failure to fulfill the supplier's obligations". Under the terms of the contract, which was signed on December 18, 1000 units of SAG-7/XIX UAVs at UAH 18 thousand each were to be supplied by December 20.

Kostiantynivka village council of Zaporizhzhia region, which planned to purchase 100 units of Analog 5.8G FPV drones, 2.5W VTX + 6s6000 battery for UAH 19,780 and 100 units of 5.8G drones, 2.5W VTX/Caddx ttatel 2 + 6s 8000 battery for UAH 21,890 on December 18, terminated the agreement for the supply of FPV drones. The contract states that the village council will pay for the UAVs 10 days after receiving them. Instead, on January 3, the parties terminated the agreement.

In Dnipro, Hunter quadcopters were in the highest demand.

Thus, the Hunter D-1.1 model was purchased for 22,930 UAH/unit.

FPV quadcopters "Hunter D-2" - for 26 395 UAH/unit.

FPV quadcopters "Hunter D-2.1" - for 27 600 UAH/unit.

FPV quadcopters "Hunter D-3" - 18 750 UAH/unit.

30 Kolibri unmanned aerial vehicles worth UAH 1.55 million

The largest procurement in terms of volume was the agreement of the Department of Municipal Security of Odesa City Council for UAH 46.75 million for the supply of 30 sets of kamikaze drones (including 100 single-use drones, two video helmets, memory cards, a repeater, and battery devices) at UAH 1.55 million per set.

The second largest procurer is the Executive Committee of Khmelnytskyi Municipal Council, which concluded agreements for a total of UAH 23.72 million for the purchase of SAG-7/IX FPV drones for UAH 11,980-13,498 per unit, and SAG-7/II drones for UAH 14,098 per unit.

The executive committee also purchased sets of Synytsia drones with a battery, a Zorro control panel, and a Cobra video helmet for UAH 415,360.

Komar (Mosquito - ed.) drones with a video helmet and control panel were purchased at UAH 339,330 per unit (the Komar (Mosquito - ed.) drone was purchased separately at UAH 32,624 per unit).

Chornobaivka in Kherson region is in third place in terms of procurement volumes. The local village council concluded ten agreements for the purchase of FPV drones for military units, totaling UAH 15.35 million.