One system comprising eight divizion (battalions) can control 72 launchers, with a maximum of 384 missiles (including missiles with a range of less than 250 km)

The expansive role of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) on both sides of Russia’s war against Ukraine spans from basic reconnaissance all the up to long-range strikes deep into the enemy’s rear.

...

The picture that emerges is one of a thick patchwork of passionate grassroots organization, adapting and innovating at a breakneck speed, and shipping off their products straight to the units that need them.

Warning signs also abound. With plenty on their plate already, the Ukrainian military and state defense industry has, according to interviewees from the battlefield to the workshops, failed to do enough to support the home-grown drone industry.

Instead, the onus falls largely on volunteers and private enterprise, who, without the resources and coordination that state backing provides, face an uphill struggle to match Russia’s centralized military machine.

...

The work of the Adam team is not all flying and explosions; each mission takes time to plan.

...

There is no computer assistance or fancy guidance tech at work here: just the muscle memory of the pilot, using a makeshift drone, dropping a makeshift munition with a makeshift release system.

...

“They need not only technical support, you have to order somewhere, buying it takes a lot of time, and you also need to train the pilots. These are far from being standardized weapons.”

...

This facility is operated by Defender Army, an organization which brings together some of Ukraine’s top UAV producers under one roof, coordinating and certifying their production, and facilitating the drones’ delivery straight to front-line units.

...

According to Defender Army co-founder Denys Liubchenko, 29, the organization now oversees a potential production capacity of over 5,000 FPV drones per month.
 
...

“Now, we have this situation where the majority of the work is carried on the shoulders of the manufacturers themselves, they handle the diversification of the products, the refining of the ‘birds,’ the improvement of technical specs and flight characteristics, the upsizing of production, and so on.”

In the absence of help from the government, Defender Army’s manufacturers have pushed ahead on their own with new drone designs, including fixed-wing unmanned aircraft with an operational range of up to 1,500 kilometers.

...

“Their success rate can be somewhere around 10-15% in the best-case scenario. The cool videos posted online are obviously more the exception than the rule.”

...

In an ideal world, Vitalii would like to switch his drones’ communications systems to digital rather than analogue signals. Though there can be a higher risk of losing digitally connected drones, their encrypted signal is much harder to block and track by enemy electronic warfare.

...

In July, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal announced that the Ukrainian government was investing Hr 40 billion ($1.01 billion) into drone manufacturing, in an event attended by the ministers of Economy, Technology, and Stategic Industries, but not Defense.

...

Unmanned vehicles have given the fighting in Ukraine a high-tech edge, but the bulk of the work is still done by artillery and, painfully, human beings, who still need to physically enter an area to call it captured.

“The thing about FPVs is that this mobility means you can destroy a several million-dollar tank with a little drone that costs just a few hundred dollars,” said Yevhen.

“But when it comes to targeting trenches and supporting assaults, artillery is the most important.”
...
Meanwhile, Russian media announced in July that Moscow would triple production of Lancet drones, showing footage of newly built facilities. According to an August article by the Washington Post, Moscow is also looking to produce 6,000 homemade versions of the Iranian Shahed-136 kamikaze drone, with which Russia attacks Ukraine on an almost-daily basis.

“It's important to understand that our enemy does not only have terrorist intentions,” said Liubchenko. “It also has impressive industrial capacity, thanks to which it can produce in large amounts, it doesn't face issues with parts because it has China and North Korea in its corner.”

It is China, Vitalii says, that concerns him the most.

DJI — which not only dominates the global civilian drone market but also makes the drones most commonly used in the war — says it has stopped sales to both Ukraine and Russia.

Despite this, a July 2023 Politico investigation showed that over $100 million dollars worth of drones had already flown directly from China to Russia, much of it through private companies linked to both states.

Even more so than by the hardware imbalance, Vitalii is concerned that soon, Beijing could deactivate Ukraine’s vast fleet of DJI drones by blocking the accounts needed to make them run.

La boîte mail du vice-président de la Douma a été piratée. Les emails récoltés soulignent les liens avec Marine Le Pen. Des factures prouvent que le conseiller international de M. Le Pen a vu ses déplacements en Russie défrayés par des proches du Kremlin.

Marine Le Pen @MLP_officiel a donc bien menti devant la Commission d'enquête @AssembleeNat lors de son audition sous serment le 24 mai 2023  
 
Le fait d'omettre volontairement des faits ou de mentir sciemment (devant une Commission d'enquête parlementaire) entraîne des sanctions pouvant aller jusqu'à 5 ans de prison et 75000 euros d'amende
 
@LaurentESQUENET  Président de séance
@ConstanceLeGrip Rapporteure
 
Tous les propos de l'audition de Marine Le Pen sont officiellement consignés dans le rapport public (tome 2)  
Marine Le Pen a nié l'existence de liens financiers entre le #RN  @RNational_off et la #Russie , nié être intervenue personnellement pour des rencontres avec les plus hauts dirigeants du pouvoir, nié avoir eu des frais pris en charge pour des élus du RN dont elle même ...
 
Extrait :
"- M. Laurent Esquenet-Goxes, président.  
Vous avez indiqué que tous vos déplacements sont publics et que votre réputation vous précède. Savez-vous qui est Alexandre Babakov ?  
- Mme Marine Le Pen, présidente du Rassemblement national.  
Un ami de JeanLuc Schaffhauser, de mémoire"
Pourtant, il existe bien des relations proches entre Marine Le Pen et  Alexandre Mikhaïlovitch Babakov ,  à qui Marine Le Pen a demandé d'organiser des rencontres ... (cf. pièces jointes)
 
Les révélations des "BabakovLeaks" ne font que commencer ...
 
A lire extraits de l'enquête journalistique suite aux "BabakovLeaks"

Et alors que le jeune président du RN ne voit pas «d’issue à ce conflit sans le retrait des troupes russes et sans le retour à une souveraineté pleine et entière de l’Ukraine dans les territoires aujourd’hui occupés par la Russie», Marine Le Pen préfère fustiger le «bellicisme irresponsable» de certains et proposer une «conférence sur la paix», sans conditions pour la Russie. Cerise sur le gâteau, elle a cette formule non exempte de sournoiserie : «En ce qui me concerne, sachez chers compatriotes que je continuerai à porter inlassablement le message d’indépendance et de paix qui fut et, je le crois, reste, l’honneur de notre Patrie.»
«Elle doit lui en vouloir à mort»
 
L’entourage de Le Pen assure que sa lettre n’est pas une réponse à l’interview de Jordan Bardella. Mais plusieurs sources assurent à Libé que le texte n’était pas prévu, et a bien été rédigé entre mercredi et vendredi matin. Un ancien cadre du parti avance une explication : «Elle ne supporte pas qu’on empiète sur l’international, qui est sa chasse gardée. Elle doit lui en vouloir à mort : elle avait réussi à équilibrer sa position et à faire oublier sa russophilie. Et le truc de Jordan la rediabolise et différenciant leur position à tous les deux.» A la manœuvre, Renaud Labaye, secrétaire général du groupe RN à l’Assemblée, et Philippe Olivier, eurodéputé, beau-frère et plume de Marine Le Pen. Mijotée en petit comité, l’initiative est décriée en interne. «Pourquoi remettre une pièce dans la machine de la Russie avec un communiqué qui n’apporte rien ? s’agace un député. Actuellement, Marine Le Pen marche sur l’eau. Elle doit prendre de la hauteur.»