The state-owned "Ukrainian Defense Industry" company has launched a production version of the Iranian-Russian Shahed kamikaze drone and mastered the licensed production of FPV drones, the company's CEO Herman Smetanin told Ekonomichna Pravda.

"We have an analog of the Shahed, and there are more powerful models, because the Shahed does not fly that far. We are now focusing on the production of more complex and expensive projects with high performance," Smetanin said.

According to him, the record for combat range among these drones is about 1000 km. This is the distance from Kharkiv to Kazan or from Sumy to St. Petersburg.

The development of a kamikaze drone capable of flying 1000 km was announced a year ago by the previous leadership of Ukroboronprom. At that time, the product was at the testing stage. 

In addition, Ukroboronprom facilities have launched licensed production of three models of FPV drones from private companies.

"There is a great need for FPV drones now. We help private companies to scale their development. We have signed license agreements with three large companies to manufacture their models. We have people, premises, components are delivered to us and we produce. We help everyone who comes to us to scale their developments," Smetanin said.