How Ukraine’s TAF Drones produces 40,000 FPV drones per month

Photo: courtesy of TAF Drones

Ukraine's Ministry of Defense has provided 1.2 million unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to its military this year. In the coming years, Ukraine plans to expand its domestic drone production to reach 4 million units annually.

One of the key features of Ukraine's military-industrial complex is the decentralization of its production, as it relies not only on state-owned defense manufacturers but also on private companies, the number of which has grown significantly over the years. For instance, the number of drone manufacturers in Ukraine has increased from seven in 2022 to over 100 in 2024.

TAF Drones is a prominent Ukrainian manufacturer of First-Person View (FPV) drones. Although its main office is located in Odesa, the company operates several offices and production facilities throughout Ukraine.

The production of TAF Drones is dispersed among six cities, some 12 industrial locations operate all at once, which change every three months.

In its October-November edition, Forbes Ukraine published an interview with Oleksandr Yakovenko, the founder of TAF Drones. Below is a summary of the interview in English.

• Currently, the Ukrainian company TAF Drones produces 40,000 drones per month.

• In September 2023, the company was producing 6,000 drones per month, and by September 2024, the production increased to 40,000 drones.

• TAF Drones' first strategy is to mass-produce an easy-to-use product (FPV drones) at minimal cost. At the moment, the company has only one advantage, unfortunately, earned through blood: the experience of using various weapons on the front line.

• Yakovenko stated that there are very few truly innovative solutions for defense in Ukraine at the moment. New technologies are being developed based on existing solutions. The problem with Ukraine’s military tech sector is that state-owned companies have deep expertise in developing technological solutions, but they are neither fast nor always effective.

• The team at TAF Drones can move much faster than the government, but it lacks experience in long-term developments, such as the creation of engines, which can take 5–10 years.

• Ukraine’s military tech market has tripled since 2023. The private sector is now worth $1.5–2 billion per year. In 2025, we will see the first significant Western investments in Ukrainian military technology.

  Thanks to collaborations with private investors and international venture funds, Ukrainian defense innovation developers attracted over $25 million in 2024. For comparison, in 2023, the figure was $5 million.

• Currently, TAF Drones is in negotiations with foreign partners, which can be divided into three tracks:

  1. The first track is joint production and development on the territory of Ukraine. TAF Drones is already collaborating with two companies in this format: TAF assembles products for them in Ukraine and, in collaboration, further improves production based on current developments on the front lines.

  2. The second track involves Western partners making centralized purchases directly from private enterprises in Ukraine. There are two components to this. The first is that they simply provide the funds, and Ukrainians produce the goods. The second option under consideration is for some enterprises to open production facilities in nearby territories, such as the European Union.

     The equipment produced there would go both to Ukraine and the EU. However, there is a challenge here: while Ukraine has made significant progress in de-bureaucratizing processes, permits, access to weapons, and codification, this has not happened in the EU.

  3. The third track is to make Ukrainian solutions technologically attractive for foreign orders. The only way to enter the foreign market is through targeted innovations or an affordable product that has been tested on the battlefield and proven effective.

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• The path to creating an innovative military product within the country is blocked by the export ban.

  Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Kyiv imposed a ban on the export of military goods to other nations to ensure that the Ukrainian armed forces receive the necessary equipment to defend their territory.

• Currently, TAF Drones is testing different permit formats in the EU. “We can assemble our drone at a production facility in the EU and install our software—no permit is required for this.”

• Any foreign military-tech company has a civilian division that produces goods for civilian use. TAF Drones also needs to explore the civilian sector—without this, a company won’t survive. Military operations are cyclical, whereas civilian needs are constant.