Low On Ammo, UKR Tries to Build 1M Explosive Drones; Lack of Ammo Will Force UKR to Make Tough Choices On Which Areas to Defend; Avdiivka Situation Difficult, UKR Keeps It Stable; UKR Repels 41 Attacks in 5 Axes-Last day, LIVE UPDATES and LOTS MORE

WSJ: Low on Ammo, Ukraine Tries to Build a Million Explosive Drones:

Kyiv relying on small airborne weapons assembled in workshops across the country

At the end of a bare concrete hallway, in a building that sat empty until a few months ago, a dozen men hunched over desks assembling pieces of black carbon fiber and soldering on computer chips. A gyroscope whirred, testing the final product: an explosive attack drone.

This workshop in western Ukraine is one of dozens of startups producing cheap weapons that are helping Ukrainian troops against the Russians. Short on ammunition with additional military aid from the U.S. stalled, Ukraine is trying to compensate by producing an army of a million explosive FPV, or first-person-view, drones.

The country lacks a modern arms industry that can sustain the war effort, and it would take years—and billions of dollars—before Kyiv could produce the kind of artillery and missile systems it needs on a large scale.

But drones—which can be assembled from parts available on the commercial market and cost just a few hundred dollars each—are comparatively cheap and easy to produce. Makeshift factories are now popping up all over Ukraine and churning out thousands of FPV drones each month.

The drones are then delivered to the front, where soldiers attach explosives and fly them into Russian trenches and armored vehicles. They are guided by an operator using a controller and wearing goggles that let him see what the drone’s camera sees.

“With our economy, we cannot make tanks,” said Mykola Havryluk, chief executive of Sparrow Avia, a drone-production company. “Our solution is to make drones.” —>READ MORE HERE (or HERE)

Lack of ammunition will force Ukraine to make tough choices about which areas to defend – ISW

Analysts from the Institute for the Study of War believe that a lack of ammunition might force Ukrainian forces to make tough decisions regarding prioritising different parts of the front based on where territorial losses might be the least damaging.

Source : Institute for the Study of War (ISW)

Details : ISW continues to assess that the lack of artillery shells and delays in Western security aid “will create uncertainty in Ukrainian operational plans”.

“Open-source investigations indicate that Russian forces are benefitting from Ukraine’s ammunition shortage and inability to conduct sufficient counterbattery warfare,” ISW wrote.

Frontintelligence Insight, a Ukrainian open-source organisation, said that Russian forces previously established stationary artillery firing positions for long periods of time from late 2022 to early 2023, when ammunition shortages limited Ukrainian counterbattery warfare capabilities.

Frontelligence said that Russian forces began to concentrate their artillery in a similar way in January 2024, which indicates that Ukrainian forces are again running low on artillery shells.

Frontelligence also said that Ukrainian forces “can sometimes strike Russian artillery but overall lack adequate ammunition for effective counterbattery fire,” according to the ISW.

In the absence of Ukrainian counterbattery fire, Russian artillery can destroy settlements, making it nearly impossible for Ukrainian forces to defend them, Frontelligence explained.

In addition, according to Frontelligence, many of Ukraine’s FPV drones lack the range to strike the numerous Russian artillery systems deployed 15-24 km from the line of contact.

“Western and Ukrainian officials have recently highlighted Ukraine’s need for artillery ammunition,” the ISW reiterated. —>READ MORE HERE

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