Rosstat data show April aviation output, including manned military aircraft and
drones, rose 117% YoY. The surge highlights Moscow’s shift to a new economic and
military reality: with tank and conventional armor production and effectiveness
reaching limits, cheap, scalable unmanned systems such as drones are among the
few industrial areas still able to expand rapidly. Douglas Barrie, senior
research fellow for military aerospace at the International Institute for
Strategic Studies, said: "First-person-view drones now dominate ground combat,
making any force concentrations within several kilometres of the contact line
dangerous. Long-range drones allow Moscow to supplement its much smaller
inventory of land-attack cruise missiles and sustain strikes on key Ukrainian
national infrastructure."
