Ukraine is now said to be producing around 500,000 drones a month to defend itself against Russia's full-scale invasion. That's according to Ukrainian media, which also report that this output has almost doubled in the space of a year. But the sheer number of drones is not decisive for the Ukrainian army: the unmanned systems are being upgraded and adapted almost every week.
One of the companies driving this ongoing drone revolution and evolution is the Ukrainian firm Buntar Aerospace, which has added a new feature to its Buntar Copilot software, allowing reconnaissance drones to be controlled entirely remotely. It means only a small team remains at the launch site, while missions can be run from hundreds or even thousands of kilometres away.
"The main goal is to ensure the safety of experienced crews. Once the drone is airborne, the pilot can carry out the mission from a safe location while the launch team quickly leaves the area," Bohdan Sas, one of Buntar's founders, told Euronews.
Unlike other firms, Buntar does not rely on external remote-desktop software but has built it directly into its own mission-planning platform. The reason, Sas said, is simple: "Warfare has changed, and remote control has now become an indispensable standard."
