A manufacturing plant in Russia’s Tatarstan region has significantly scaled up its production of Iranian-designed drones, using a range of Chinese components, and recruiting a low-skilled workforce of Russian teenagers and African women,

There is a constant buzzing of drones of all sizes above the battlefield in Ukraine as both sides are using unmanned aerial systems in great numbers. Drones have become so important throughout the war that the Ukrainian military has established a separate drone service to control and coordinate the employment of the weapon systems.

Ukraine’s Defense Forces overnight Thursday shot down 20 Russian drones, while 11 more veered off their intended course. — Ukrinform.

Until the large-scale invasion of Russia in Ukraine, there hadn’t been such a prolific employment of drones by two conventional militaries against one another.

Russia’s drone strikes on Ukraine have increased sixfold in four months. The offensive is being fueled by a facility in Russia’s southern Tatarstan region, which is ramping up production with the help of a low-skilled workforce of Russian students.

In 2023, the factory produced 2,738 Shahed drones, and by the first nine months of 2024, it more than doubled this output, manufacturing 5,760 drones. According to anonymous sources, the factory is also assembling thousands of “fake” drones aimed at exhausting Ukraine’s air defense systems.

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