On 3 September, Ukraine’s Parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, approved legislation to establish the Unmanned Systems Forces as a new branch of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. The bill, numbered 11507, was passed in its second reading and as a whole, according to Yaroslav Zhelezniak, a member of parliament from the Voice party.
“The Rada supported the inclusion of Unmanned Systems Forces into the separate branches of the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” the MP wrote on Telegram.
Zhelezniak reported that 294 deputies voted in favor of the decision.
The Unmanned Systems Forces will be the world’s first military branch dedicated to utilizing air, surface, underwater, and ground drones systems in combat operations.
Unmanned Systems Forces
The initiative for this new military branch was set in motion on 6 February 2024, when President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed Decree №51/2024 “On Increasing the Capabilities of the Defense Forces.” The project was developed by the Ministry of Defense in collaboration with the General Staff, with the government backing the initiative on 7 May.
Vadym Sukharevskyi, Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, was appointed as the commander of the Unmanned Systems Forces on 10 June. Speaking at the “Ukraine. Year 2024” forum in February, Sukharevskyi outlined the goals of this new branch:
“The aim of our team is based on three main theses: efficiency, systematicity, and analysis of the use of Unmanned Systems Forces. This will be a powerful fist that will solve real tasks on the battlefield, which will be a reliable support shoulder for our combat brigades.”
On 20 August, the Cabinet of Ministers approved the bill that establishes the new military branch and allocated 24 billion hryvnias ($580 million) for the procurement of unmanned aerial vehicles for the Security and Defense Forces.
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