Russia’s Drone Industry Surges as Wider War Machine Slows

Drone production remains one of the most dynamic parts of Russia’s defense industry. According to data from the Federal State Statistics Service, output in the aircraft sector, which includes manned military aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicles, rose 117% year-on-year in April. Bloomberg put average growth across 2025 at 68%.

Bloomberg reported that the sector is one of the areas where Moscow is still able to expand, even as production of tanks, armored vehicles and missile components begins to slow.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has previously said that Russia produced about 1.4 million drones last year. Ukrainian intelligence estimates that Moscow wants to increase output to more than seven million first-person-view (FPV) drones a year by 2026.

Ukraine has also rapidly expanded its own drone industry. The country’s armed forces were expected to receive three million FPV drones in 2025, almost 2.5 times more than the previous year, according to Defense Minister Denys Shmyhal. In January 2026, Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council said domestic industry had the capacity to produce more than eight million such drones a year.

The expansion has made unmanned systems central to both sides of the war, with cheap drones increasingly shaping battlefield tactics and long-range strikes.

(mja)