As in the online store: 70% of combat drone purchases will be transferred to DOT-Chain Defence

The Defense Procurement Agency (DPA) plans to transfer 70% of state procurement of FPV drones, heavy bombers, and reconnaissance UAVs to the new DOT-Chain Defence system within six months, the agency's director Arsen Zhumadilov said at a briefing.

DOT-Chain Defence is a new service of the Ministry of Defense that allows the military to order drones directly from the manufacturer, without waiting for numerous approvals from the General Staff and the Ministry of Defense.

It works on the principle of a marketplace, meaning the commander can compare prices, specifications, reviews, recall his previous experience of use, and independently choose which drones to spend the state money intended to support his unit on. It is also possible to spend the earned e-points, which are awarded for defeating enemies.

Since the service was launched in August, more than 38,000 drones worth UAH 1.5 billion have been delivered. The average time from order to delivery is 10 days. Currently, 38 manufacturers and 186 drone models are available on the marketplace.

In a comment to "Defense", Arsen Zhumadilov noted that only those types of military equipment are transferred to DOT-Chain Defence where the market is sufficiently mature. That is, if there is a large number of manufacturers and stable demand from the military.

"For example, ground robotic complexes are not actively used by a very large number of units. Therefore, at the beginning of next year, they will be purchased according to the old procedure. And then it will gradually migrate to DOT-Chain Defence. The same will happen with interceptor drones," Zhumadilov noted.

12 brigades participated in the procurement, but later the system will be extended to all others. In the future, the AOZ team plans to add a "drone designer" function, meaning that the serviceman will be able to choose the configuration for the specifics of his tasks.

Feedback and a rating system for assessing product quality will also be added.

Previously, "Defense" wrote that aircraft-type drones appeared on the DOT-Chain Defence weapons marketplace.