- A Ukrainian drone operator said he can text and FaceTime with manufacturers.
- Manufacturers want battlefield feedback and can send replacement parts in a day.
- He said it means Ukrainian drones are typically better fit for the fight than what is made by Western companies.
A Ukrainian drone operator said that he can text and FaceTime with drone manufacturers about how to make and improve the tech, making the weapons better suited for battle.
Dimko Zhluktenko, a drone operator with Ukraine's Unmanned Systems Forces who has operated both strike and reconnaissance drones, told Business Insider that working with Ukrainian drones "is much easier because of the communication with the manufacturers."
In training, "we would send them videos, pictures, FaceTime or anything" if there were any issues, feedback, or parts that needed to be replaced, he said.
Most of the drones that Ukraine's forces are using to fight back against Russia's invasion are being made in Ukraine, but drone operators are also using ones made in the West, like the US's Switchblade and Turkey's Bayraktar.
Hundreds of Ukrainian companies, from bigger, government-backed operations to smaller ones working out of garages, are working on making a host of different types of drones. And there is a lot of communication with troops about what works and doesn't. It permits rapid iteration.
Zhluktenko said that being able to talk so directly with the manufacturers in Ukraine means that he typically prefers working with Ukrainian drones over Western alternatives.
"Normally having the Ukrainian thing is somewhat better just because you can get it to work faster much faster," he said.
Ukrainian weapon systems are being built and refined for this specific conflict. He said that "it's not fair to say that all foreign stuff is crappy, but at the same time, I know that in most of the cases, if it's Ukrainian, that is somewhat battle-tested and better fit for our specific battlefield."
The problem with working with big Western companies is that there is a "shitload of bureaucracy, and probably you won't get very fair results even after that."
In Ukraine, there's a "short feedback loop," he said, where manufacturers start to design a new drone type, drone alteration, or new drone software, and then they work with the operators to quickly design and prototype the most suitable one. He said that drone operators get direct requests from the manufacturers asking them to fly new drone types. It provides feedback for rapid iterative development.
He said that the drone makers will hand them the drone and the manual, tell them to fly at the range or in battle, and report back. They don't even care if it gets lost, they just want a detailed report on what could be improved so they can make a better product.
It's "essentially market research," he said.
Zhluktenko said that manufacturers "want to come to our places" near the battlefield "and see how we operate. They want to see what is that they can do to make our life easier."
The close communication allows for speedy repairs and replacements too. That allows Ukraine's troops to keep training or fighting without introducing new delays.
Zhluktenko said that sometimes when they have had issues with a drone, "we called the manufacturer and said, 'Guys, we had this kind of issue and something broke off, can we just quickly patch it somehow?'"
"And then they'll say, "no problem at all."
A replacement part can regularly arrive from the company the next day.
"The communication here is tremendously good," Zhluktenko said, noting that they don't have to go through official bureaucratic channels. "It is very direct, and they are very open to help us. They don't need a shit load of documents or anything," he said, telling BI that he hasn't had similar experiences with Western drone manufacturers.
Zhluktenko said that in Ukraine, "manufacturers are acting in their best interest" because if the soldiers think the product is good, the companies "can pitch it to the government, the government can buy it, they could scale the production, and Ukraine can win. I think that is the main motivation here."
A different way of making drones
Different from Russia and many Western nations, the way Ukraine is making its drones comes with a host of advantages and disadvantages.
It breeds innovation and creates a range of drones that Russia has to learn to defeat, but it also creates more work for operators. It is also a lot harder for any individual company to scale up production.
Drones have been used more in Russia's invasion of Ukraine than in any other conflict in history. They have been used for reconnaissance, to track and hit Russian equipment and troops, damage Russian ships at sea, and hit oil refineries in Russia hundreds of miles past the border, among other missions.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine produced 2.2 million drones in 2024 and planned to increase that further in 2025.
But with a smaller military and a smaller population than Russia, Ukraine still needs all the help it can get, and operators are still using Western drones, including ones purchased directly by soldiers or their supporters from other countries.
Ukraine has relied on drones as it dealt with shortages of other equipment, including turning to drones when supplies of ammunition from partners fell short.
Ukraine has received billions of dollars in aid from partners, including the US and Europe, but at times that aid has been insufficient.
Ukraine has increasingly made more of its own weapons as the war has continued in a bid to become more self-sufficient. Its president said 30% of the military equipment it used in 2024 was made domestically.
That matters more as international partners like the US under President Donald Trump become less reliable. Its increased domestic production may not be enough though. Some experts assess Ukraine can only last a few months with no aid from the US.
Europe is boosting defense spending and many allies intend to continue supporting Ukraine, but the US was the single largest individual contributor, and some of the most powerful weaponry it was giving Ukraine has no easy replacement.
