Expert explains why Ministry of Defense does not pay for training of UAV operators

This was stated by Maksym Polyvianyi, Director of the National Association of Defense Industry Enterprises of Ukraine, during a press conference at Ukrinform.

"The first and main problem why the Ministry of Defense does not order, contract, or pay for training services for UAV operators is that there is no regulatory framework on this issue in our country, as far as I know. This issue is at an early stage," he said.

Mr. Polyvianyi called on representatives of related associations to join the work on developing changes to the existing regulatory framework to solve this problem.

"The Ministry of Defense and its lawyers will not deal with this issue on their own, they will not develop changes to solve this problem. They are a little bit busy right now. That's why I propose to lend our shoulder - manufacturers, associations, etc. - to initiate these changes," said the director of the National Association of Defense Industry Enterprises of Ukraine.

Denys Cherednichenko, co-owner of Deviro, a production and innovation company that specializes in the design, development, and production of civilian and military unmanned aerial vehicles, said that both manufacturers and other training centers need to work together directly with the Ministry of Defense and inform the ministry's leadership or officials dealing with these issues of the need to implement these changes in their regulations.

"Because manufacturers not as large as mine will not be able to spend a large enough share of their financial resources to train pilots and operators on an official basis. This entails very high costs, in particular, the need to maintain the material and technical base, the staff of instructors, who must also be trained in state institutions to have the official status of an instructor, etc.", said Cherednichenko.

According to the co-founder of Deviro, it is also necessary to change the Ministry of Defense's bylaws so that private companies see the prospects and are not afraid to invest in organizing their own training centers.

MP Vadym Ivchenko agreed with the idea that public-private partnerships should be established in this issue of UAVs.

Separately, Polyvianyi said that next year the state plans to purchase a large number of different types and kinds of UAVs from various domestic manufacturers.

"And I believe that today this problem [with the training of UAV operators] can be solved very simply: each contract for the purchase of such UAVs directly with the manufacturer should also include several training sessions for representatives of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. That is, for example, 50 UAV systems are being purchased from us for the Ministry of Defense. And the same contract provides for training for 30-40 operators, in which the manufacturer directly describes the training program - how many hours this program will include, certain theory and practice, a trip to training grounds - all this is spelled out in the contract, etc.", said the director of the National Association of Defense Industry Enterprises of Ukraine.

Answering the question about cooperation with local governments, Polyvianyi expressed his belief that if normal fruitful cooperation with the military-civilian administration is established on the ground, this problem can be partially solved without attracting earmarked budget funds, which are currently problematic due to the lack of a regulatory framework to address this issue.

As reported, on December 4, Minister of Strategic Industries Oleksandr Kamyshyn said that Ukraine has already established production of most UAV models and that most of the drones purchased for the Defense Forces are made in Ukraine.