Ukraine aims for 70% drone support via DOT-Chain Defence within 6 months

The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine plans to expand the DOT-Chain Defence program, Defense Minister Denys Shmyhal has announced.

"In the future, we plan to scale the marketplace to all Armed Forces of Ukraine and expand the list of manufacturers and available means of destruction. In addition, this year we plan to launch the Drone Designer - the ability to modify UAVs for your combat missions. Our goal is to reach 70% of UAV provision through DOT-Chain Defence within six months," Shmyhal said on Telegram on Monday.

Currently, he reported, through the marketplace the military has ordered almost 17,000 UAVs worth almost UAH 600 million and held almost 13,000 UAVs worth UAH 443 million. The average delivery time is 10 days, the fastest is five days.

In addition, 23,800 vehicles have been delivered under the "Drone Army Bonus" program.

"Thanks to DOT-Chain Defence, for the first time, units independently choose weapons - they do not wait for centralized decisions. Three signatures of the CEP, and the drone is already on its way. At the same time, this is direct feedback from the front for weapons manufacturers. This makes it possible to quickly adapt products," the minister emphasized.

As reported, the Defense Procurement Agency conducted an anonymous survey among 12 brigades participating in the pilot of the DOT-Chain Defence weapons marketplace, in order to obtain an objective assessment of the user experience of the military when placing orders under the new system.

According to its results, the military highly appreciated the convenience of ordering and the speed of delivery, training and availability of consultations with DOT technical support specialists. At the same time, the military indicated the need to expand the list of available means of destruction.