Ukraine’s defense industry names the main shortage for drone production

Ukrainian weapons manufacturers are increasing the localization of production, but remain dependent on imported components, some of which have become critically scarce.

This is reported in an RBC-Ukraine article titled “The Chinese accent: What Ukrainian drones are made of and what components the defense industry lacks.”

According to defense industry representatives surveyed, depending on the company, the share of components from China can still reach 40%. Ukrainian enterprises are actively working on localizing production, but not all necessary components can yet be manufactured domestically.

Boris Budeyanski, director of technology company BlueBird Tech, noted that the key problem remains not only the availability of parts, but also the stability of their supply.

“For war, it is critically important that a component can be obtained not on a one-off basis, but systematically and in large volumes,” he explained.

The company “General Chereshnya” also notes that manufacturers need predictability of supplies, since production rates and order fulfillment depend on it.

Among the most scarce items, manufacturers cite microelectronics, GNSS navigation modules and inertial systems, sensors, optical equipment, and thermal imaging arrays. The situation with battery systems and specialized chips for flight control and stabilization also remains difficult.

Sergei Goncharov, executive director of NAUDI, said that for drone manufacturers the shortage of fiber-optic cable is particularly acute. It is not produced in Ukraine, and global prices for such products have risen significantly due to demand from the defense industry and the development of data centers. Certain types of explosives, which also have to be imported, remain in short supply as well.

The industry emphasizes that for drone manufacturers it is critically important to be able to receive identical components in the required volumes over a long period of time. Even replacing a single component often requires repeated testing of the product, software adaptation, and reconfiguration of production processes, which affects the speed of production.