Ukraine drone sector pushes on after Fedorov dismissal

Ukraine's drone sector is unlikely to be derailed by last month's dismissal of defence minister Mykhailo Fedorov, according to industry figures and military personnel interviewed by AFP, who said battlefield demand and bottom-up engineering have made the shift difficult to reverse.

Fedorov had been a strong supporter of bringing drones, private companies and artificial intelligence into Ukraine's military system. He created the Defence AI Center A1, a hub aimed at using frontline feedback to speed up military technology deployment.

Eduard Trotsenko, founder and CEO of robot maker Temerland, said there was “no going back” for the sector. His company moved from car charging stations to military robots after Russia's invasion and now focuses on ground drones used to move supplies and help evacuate wounded soldiers from areas exposed to drone fire.

Trotsenko said two combat prototypes, one equipped with an RPG rocket launcher and another with a heavy machine gun, were being tested in some brigades and were awaiting further approval from Ukraine's General Staff.

A 45-year-old military commander who uses the call sign Jason said drone development had not depended only on orders from the top. He said engineers, programmers and telecoms specialists had become integrated into the army, but that a shortage of professionally trained people remained his biggest challenge.