Unmanned project

Ukraine celebrated the Day of the Armed Forces. Today's Ukrainian army survives thanks to a powerful volunteer movement. The Commissioner of the Minister of Defense of Ukraine for procurement, David Arahamia, answered the questions of the Grani.ru about how the first drones appeared in the service of the Ukrainian army, about the role of volunteers in providing the Ukrainian army and how he turned out to be an adviser to the minister.

- How did it happen that you took up the provision of the Ukrainian army with drones?

• Let's start from the beginning. My name is David. I am 36 years old. I am a refugee from Abkhazia, lived in the city of Gagra. That is why this topic is close to me - I was 12 years old when the same green men who came to the Crimea, about the same scenario appeared in Abkhazia. We were forced to leave, because my parents were Georgians. We wandered, lived in Penza for a year and a half, I studied in Penza. We had distant relatives in Ukraine, they had the opportunity to settle for free, and we moved to Nikolaev. There I graduated from a school with a gold medal, a university with a red diploma and became an ITSHNIK. As a businessman, I worked mainly for Western companies.

From Nikolaev to the Crimean border, about 140 kilometers, an hour and a half drive. When the annexation of Crimea occurred last year, my coach and my gym and I, out of pure curiosity, went to the border where our paratroopers stood. We found them in a completely disassembled state. They did not have any provision - neither gasoline nor form. And we decided to show the state an example of how to equip fighters, so that they defend our homeland.

We made such a project called the "first folk landing battalion." They found suppliers who sell equipment, conducted a fundraising campaign, online showed how much money was collected. This aroused the interest of the press, attracted people. Thus, we quickly raised 150-160 thousand dollars. We put on one battalion - and then the ATO began. And we realized that our help is insufficient in a conflict of this scale. Then we decided to make a platform for the work of volunteers "People's Project". At the moment, we have raised more than four and a half million dollars for various projects related to the army, medicine, rehabilitation, and so on.

I did not serve in the army and completely not a military man. I began to study how other than money, equipment, panties, socks and boots can be helped. From the films we knew that somewhere there there are such drones. That the war of the 21st century is built on drones. With their help, all the disorders gather.

First, one crazy inventor came to us and said: "I will make drones, I need money." We raised about 30 thousand dollars under it. Unfortunately, this man turned out to be such a science fiction writer - he “mastered” this money without doing anything. We and my partners - and we are middle -level businessmen - the middle class had to return our money to the fund. We were responsible for managing folk money, for errors we had to pay.

They started assembly from all sorts of Chinese components at home. Then we began to collect talents, searched throughout the country of engineers, designers, aviators. To date, without false modesty, I can say that we are the first in the country, who produces military drones that can be in the air, seven hours, fly into the enemy, fly in the territory of the ATO, remove military goals, etc. That is, they made a product at the level of European standards.

Since we do not want to earn money in our own country and on our own people, we give our drones at cost, that is, at the price of components. Everything else is done due to volunteer resources. So the Ukrainian army receives our drones five times cheaper than Polish or Estonian analogues.

- That is, the army pays for some part?

• Now these are completely gifts of the army, which are funded by the people of Ukraine. But since we need to increase the number of drones, we are negotiating that the state purchases components, gives us, we make assembly and gave back the finished drones. In total, there are about thirty in the country of such initiatives (we are not talking about machines like ours, but about smaller drones). Collect quadrocopters, airplanes, electric models, models with internal combustion engines, etc.

In general, the volunteer movement has over a million people. Volunteers help the army, act as effective intermediaries in the fundraising and their distribution. Of these, about ten thousand people are professionally engaged in the help of the army. People sacrifice their own time and help on a regular basis. This fact largely refutes the conversations of Russian propaganda about junta and other things. There is no organization throughout the country where I can’t just come as a volunteer and ask for help. I can come to a super-expensive legal company, ask for a consultation about some aspect of the assistance of the army, and I will receive this consultation for free.

- Before you started to deal with drones, at least one such car was in service with the Ukrainian army?

• No, it was not. There were only some negotiations ... As I understand it, during the time of Yanukovych, the modernization of the army purposefully descended on the brakes. Our defense potential decreased, and these were coordinated actions. But in our military -industrial complex there are strong brains, and in such crisis moments there is a mobilization of all resources, including brains. And with the proper managerial approach, very serious decisions can be generated.

- Volunteers who make drones - due to what do they live?

• At first they came and said: "We will collect for free." Then we realized that this is complete employment, and the guys have families, all sorts of obligations, and so on. We told familiar businessmen who help the army about our project, and they supported it. Thus, due to private donations, we pay them a salary.

And since the drones are of good quality, we want to make from this a commercial enterprise that will engage in the export of these products to the markets of Europe, Asia and the USA.

- As far as I understand, Western investors are not yet very ready to invest in Ukrainian drones.

• Yes. The problem is that this production is not certified according to European standards. There are questions for components. For example, some Chinese components are also not certified. But we have an undeniable competitive advantage. Our drones act in the war against a seriously armed army. Whatever the Russian authorities say, we have numerous evidence (including video) of the presence of Russian military units in Ukraine. Our marketing message to the West is "Drones that showed themselves in the war against the Russian army." They know how to resist Russian detection and radio delating systems.

Military Museum in Kyiv. Photo by Yuri Timofeev:

- How did you make a decision to go to the Ministry of Defense?

• When it all started, my first thought was to collect things and move to some Croatia. The second time in my life, a story was repeated when I could lose everything that I have, for foreign policy reasons, let's say so. But then I asked myself the question: "What could you change?" And I decided for myself that I would do everything that depends on me in order to stop it, and if I can’t do it, then I can leave with a calm conscience. Fortunately, it turned out more than I expected. I still united patriotic movements in Nikolaev, we built checkpoints here, organized the protection of the city. When our effectiveness became noticeable, the Minister of Defense invited me to himself and offered to become his adviser. We created the Council of Volunteers at the Ministry of Defense and are trying to coordinate the volunteer efforts that are scattered and decentralized.

- It turns out?

• It turns out, and pretty good. At first, of course, there was some confrontation, because the volunteers were offended that the ministry did not fulfill its direct duties to supply to the army. This is due to the fact that the ministry as a system was ruined for a long time. Now, a year later, the shifts are very serious - even international experts who studied the results of our work, talk about them as phenomenal. This has not happened in any military conflict over the past twenty years.

- Have you encountered corruption?

• This is a very serious problem. On our initiative, such an order has been instituted that everyone who comes to work in the ministry must undergo a polygraph test. Possible ties with corrupt officials, as well as with foreign special services, are checked. At first we checked all the volunteers, and now we have created a special department that checks the officials of the ministry.

In addition, we initiated the introduction of the first electronic procurement system in the country. The experts of the World Bank appreciated it as one of the best developments in this area in Europe. We transferred the Ministry of Defense to electronic purchases. These are such online decrease. Anonymous participants compete who will sell the equipment, ammunition, etc. As a result of auctions, we usually reach a 20-25 percent reduction in price.