Recent months have shown that Russia is entering a new stage of the war with Ukraine and a new chapter in the aviation industry. He points to it a huge increase in drone production, which amounted to 117% in April. compared to the previous year – Bloomberg reports, based on data from the Russian statistical office. For comparison, according to Bloomberg calculations, the average year-on-year growth in 2025 was 68%.
With the production and effectiveness of tanks and other heavy, conventional armored vehicles declining, Russia is relying on cheap and multi-functional unmanned systems. The drone production sector is still able to develop rapidly, Bloomberg points out.
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Drones dominate frontline battles
As Douglas Barry, senior associate for military aviation at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, told Bloomberg, drones are now “the dominant element of land combat.” — Longer-range unmanned aircraft have enabled Moscow to supplement its arsenal of ground-based cruise missiles and support its campaign against Ukraine's key national infrastructure – emphasized the expert.
Currently, Russia produces approximately 20,000 a day. FPV drones. Deploying them along an active front line approximately 1,200 km long means approximately 17 Russian drones per kilometer per day, Bloomberg reports. Russia plans to produce over 7 million such unmanned aerial vehicles in 2026.
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Drone production is not only a step towards using the most effective and cheap weapons on the front, but also an opportunity to bypass some of the structural limitations of the economy. They are produced quickly in large quantities, and in times of labor shortages in Russia, women's labor can be used to produce them.
According to official data, the Russian economy has slowed down significantly recently. While in 2024 GDP growth was still 4.9%, last year it dropped to only about 1%. In the first quarter of 2026, the economy contracted by 0.2%. The slowdown affected, among others, the production sector of heavy machinery, ammunition and missile components. At the same time – according to Bloomberg – the Russian aviation industry increased production by 78%. in the first four months of the year, which contrasts with the overall data.
