Drones for Budget Money

UPD An error in the infographic about the 10 cities with the most drone contracts in 2023 is corrected. The DOZORRO team apologizes for the mistake.

The Ukrainian authorities announced a plan to produce one million FPV drones and thousands of medium- and long-range drones in the next year. Drones can also be purchased at the local level; citizens demanded an increase in fund allocation to this end when protesting at local councils in autumn. It is not yet possible to assess the volumes of such procurement transactions in communities in 2024.

But we can already analyze the orders for 2023. The DOZORRO project of Transparency International Ukraine studied the details of last year’s drone procurement on Prozorro.

More and more

Procurement transactions for at least 27,000 drones for UAH 2.6 bln were completed in 2023 on Prozorro. Tenders for another UAH 119 mln were in progress.

NB! This is not the entire number of drones purchased for military purposes last year. The Ministry of Digital Transformation purchases drones for budgetary and specially designated charitable funds and transfers them to military units in a centralized manner. These data are not made public by law. Military units can also buy drones; they sometimes publish reports on such procurement transactions on Prozorro, but information on the number is mostly closed. Therefore, there is no information in the public domain about the number and cost of combat drones, only partial data about dual-purpose drones, which include the well-known Mavic and Autel drones.

Thus, most often, drones on Prozorro were ordered by communities. Moreover, local councils, for example, in Chernihiv, Lviv, and Kyiv, had the opportunity not to buy UAVs themselves but to transfer this money to military units.

Overall, the number of drones purchased grew steadily. If in January-February the amount under procurement transactions did not exceed UAH 66 mln, then in spring, the amount spent at least in a month was UAH 122 mln. In June, procuring entities bought drones worth UAH 217 mln. In November, the total amount under contracts for them almost reached half a billion.

In 2023, the amount spent on drone procurement on Prozorro was 12 times higher than in 2022: UAH 2.6 bln and UAH 218 mln, respectively. The number of drones was 43 times higher.

61% of the total amount spent under contracts falls on competitive procedures. There are also two types of direct procurement: basic and defense-related. The second concerns those direct contracts reported by the procuring entities that generally purchase products only for defense purposes.

Mavic and FPV drones are the most popular

A significant part of the drones purchased are quadcopters from the Chinese manufacturer DJI. The most popular are DJI Mavic 3 drones of different versions, such as Fly More Combo, Enterprise, and Thermal. Autel drones, produced by the American company Autel Robotics Co., Ltd., are quite common, too. Autel EVO quadcopters — Max 4T and 640T — were purchased most often.

Domestic drones on Prozorro are not uncommon. These are reconnaissance drones of the airplane type, large combat drones, and small kamikaze copters. Most often, procuring entities bought:

• Leleka-100, created by the Ukrainian company DeViRo. It is used for reconnaissance. The cost of such a complex varies significantly depending on the configuration; the price of the UAV itself started at UAH 1 mln.
• Valkyrja (VALK-1) is also used for reconnaissance and correction of fire. Now it is produced by Warbirds of Ukraine LLC. The price of such a complex consisting of two drones and four ground stations was UAH 800,000.
• Furia is a complex developed by Athlon Avia LLC. Furia is designed for tactical air reconnaissance and the adjustment of artillery fire. The price of Furia depends on the configuration (the number of UAVs and other components of the kit), but it starts at UAH 3.3 mln.
• Combat drone Kazhan E620, equipped with a system of payload release of any type. Its price starts at UAH 668,000.
• PEGASUS ARMS 25, suitable for any payload release with a total weight of up to 20 kg. The cost of such a complex was UAH 880,000.

At least 35% of the total number of drones purchased are FPV drones. These are quadcopters controlled by the operator using a special headset (glasses). They can carry a payload, do not have an autopilot, and fly without GPS.

TOP buyers

In 2023, 658 procuring entities bought drones on Prozorro. Three city councils ordered them for more than UAH 100 mln: Dnipro, Kryvyi Rih, and Zhytomyr. The top 10 procuring entities included the city councils of Lviv, Khmelnytskyi, Lutsk, Cherkasy, Poltava, Ivano-Frankivsk, and Ternopil. We did not include military units in this list because not all information about the number and cost of drones purchased by them is public.

Analyzing the data by regions, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast comes first in terms of procurement amounts — UAH 669 mln, Kyiv Oblast comes second — UAH 270 mln, and Lviv Oblast comes third — UAH 250 mln.

Dnipro City Council: 1,928 drones for UAH 329 mln

The procurement of drones in Dnipro was carried out by ME Info-Rada-Dnipro and ME Dnipro Municipal Energy Service Company. Info-Rada-Dnipro ordered DJI Mavic and DJI Matrice drones the most: 1,082 of them in different versions. The company also purchased 90 Autel Evo, 25 Grey Widow 1, and 17 Kazhan UAVs in various configurations.

Dnipro Municipal Energy Service Company mostly bought FPV drones: 701 of 714 drones ordered.

Kryvyi Rih City Council: 733 drones for UAH 220 mln

In Kryvyi Rih, there were also large orders for DJI drones — a total of 603. Among them are various models and configurations of DJI Matrice and DJI Mavic. Autel Evo drones come in second; 65 were purchased.

In addition, 43 PEGASUS, 16 Leleka complexes of various configurations, 5 Furia, and 1 Chaklun-T complexes were ordered in Kryvyi Rih.

Zhytomyr City Council: 797 drones for UAH 160 mln

The model is specified in the procurement section of the City Council. For example, 100 DJI Mavic 3 Fly More Combo drones were ordered in July, October, and November. DJI Mavic and Autel drones were bought in other months of the year. In July, the executive committee of the City Council purchased 2 RZ-100 drones for UAH 1.65 mln. In December, the city bought 10 Molfar v1.2 UAVs for UAH 1 mln each, as well as 17 VALK-1 complexes.

Lviv City Council: 1,217 drones for UAH 64 mln

The drones were purchased by the ME Administrative and Technical Office. In particular, the company purchased 500 FPV drones in November and 500 FPV drones in December. The cost of one drone was UAH 10,100. In addition to them, there were also more than 110 Mavic drones, more than 80 Autel Evo UAVs, at least one Valkyrja complex, 4 MARA-2P complexes.

Khmelnytskyi City Council: 1,463 drones for UAH 55 mln

The Executive Committee mostly bought FPV drones: 1,305 for UAH 28 mln. But there were other drones, including DJI ones: different models of DJI Mavic and DJI Matrice.

Some procuring entities purchased more of cheaper drones, most likely FPVs. For example, the Ternopil City Council ordered 1,603 drones for UAH 45.4 mln, and the Chornobaivka Village Council ordered 1,055 drones for UAH 23 mln.

Corrected and updated infographics.

In 2023, drones began to be talked about much more than in the first year of the full-scale invasion. And thanks to the data from Prozorro, we see that this is not just talk: the amount spent on drone procurement has been steadily growing, from tens of millions per month to half a billion. This also indicates that the local authorities are responding to the demand and are engaged in ensuring defense needs.

In total, drones worth UAH 2.6 bln were purchased on Prozorro in 2023 using budget funds. This is a rather large amount. The Come Back Alive Foundation spent UAH 464 mln on procurement needs for aerial reconnaissance. The Serhiy Prytula Foundation spent UAH 472 mln on drones as of October.

However, of course, no amount of money is enough when it comes to supporting the army during the war. We hope that cities will increase their spending on drones and other things required at the front in 2024, reconsidering their everyday needs.

The material was prepared within the framework of the USAID/UK aid TAPAS Project/Transparency and Accountability in Public Administration and Services.