Tactical support: the army has created units to repair drones

The Russian Army has established technical and operational units for UAV maintenance. The personnel of these units are responsible for prompt repair, refinement of serial models and even independent manufacture of drones for specific combat tasks. Experts note that centralization will not only improve drone repair and speed up the introduction of innovations, but will also help to quickly and competently build a strategy for the use of unmanned vehicles throughout the entire UAS zone.

Specific challenges for UAVs

UAV technical and operational units have been established in every association, compound and military unit of the Russian grouping operating in the zone of the special military operation. Non-staff workshops and technical support groups have also been organized. Their personnel are primarily responsible for restoring damaged drones, including trophy drones. At the same time, in order to improve the efficiency of drone use, systematic work has been organized to introduce new technologies and improvements, sources in the Russian Defense Ministry told Izvestia.

Izvestiya's interlocutors specified that these units are modernizing existing models in accordance with the peculiarities of the theater of military operations. If necessary, special models of equipment are produced that allow solving specific combat tasks.

The troops operate a large number of unmanned systems, so they cannot do without repair shops, military expert Alexei Leonkov told Izvestia.

- At the beginning of the military special operation, the majority of UAVs - primarily, of course, of the copter type - were supplied by volunteers," he recalled. - They also maintained them. And a lot of things related to drones happened spontaneously three years ago. Now UAVs play a big role in the war zone, they are massively used, and their number will only grow. It is logical that they decided to make technical support groups for them. We can say that this is an initiative from below, which was eventually supported at the top.

Increase the efficiency of drone use

Any drone is a technically complex device, and its performance depends on the quality of assembly, as well as on the preparation for flight, Sergei Kurapov, a senior researcher at the research institute, who takes an active part in the maintenance of UAVs in the NWO zone, told Izvestia.

- Without such units, the operator would spend most of his time on repair and maintenance of the vehicles," he explained.

According to the expert, nowadays the army has a need to create full-time units of technical and operational units of UAVs with coordination of efforts in a single center.

Centralization of technical support will solve many problems that are acute for our troops, believes Sergei Kurapov.

- It is important that such units get sufficient flexibility and autonomy - this will allow them to quickly adjust to changing conditions," he said. - As a result, we will be able to receive information about the use of new means by the enemy as quickly as possible, to implement our innovations with high speed. And most importantly - to build a strategy for the use of unmanned aerial vehicles, electronic warfare (EW) and electronic reconnaissance (ER) in the framework of the entire NWO.

The expert also noted that the new staff schedule of the Russian Armed Forces units will allow "avoiding many legal conflicts" related to the positions of soldiers in UAV maintenance groups.

- They were listed as anyone," he noted. - And at some point they could receive an order to go into combat according to their staff.

This resulted in the loss of valuable, trained personnel. Now such problems should not arise, the expert noted.

Troops of unmanned systems

"Izvestia" wrote that the Russian Armed Forces will create troops of unmanned systems in accordance with the order of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief. They will appear in the third quarter of 2025. Andrei Belousov, head of the defense ministry, said that the mass use of unmanned aerial vehicles UAVs has become "the most significant breakthrough in the tactics of units" of the Russian Armed Forces.

He instructed to focus efforts on improving the tactical and technical characteristics of UAVs, to conduct their range tests on a systematic basis and to organize serial production of the best models.

The Defense Ministry reported that Russian troops use more than 3.5 thousand drones every day, and this figure is constantly growing. According to the head of the military department, now a huge number of innovative technical developments are being carried out directly in the troops, showing high results.

Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke about the need to increase the production of drones. According to the head of state, it is no less important to train UAV operators, to train them according to the programs developed on the basis of combat experience.