{"id":1376982,"date":"2026-04-02T11:30:04","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T08:30:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/the-evolution-of-uavs-how-ukrainians-turned-wedding-drones-into-a-terrifying-weapon\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T11:30:04","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T08:30:04","slug":"the-evolution-of-uavs-how-ukrainians-turned-wedding-drones-into-a-terrifying-weapon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/the-evolution-of-uavs-how-ukrainians-turned-wedding-drones-into-a-terrifying-weapon\/","title":{"rendered":"The Evolution of UAVs: How Ukrainians Turned \u201cWedding Drones\u201d into a Terrifying Weapon"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Large international corporations are beginning to feel a threat to their monopoly position in the arms market. Previously, it was believed that only huge holdings were capable of producing complex equipment, but modern combat operations have demonstrated a different reality.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p> Ivan Stupak, a military analyst and former SBU employee, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=JAg-QvPPIvE\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">spoke<\/a> about this on the air of &#8220;Pryamoy&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p> According to him, cheap drones are capable of disabling equipment worth millions of dollars, which is a serious alarm signal for traditional weapons manufacturers, and Ukraine&#8217;s successes are taking profits away from recognized industry leaders. &#8220;These contracts are hypothetically &#8216;stolen&#8217; from Rheinmetall, which they could have concluded with Saudi Arabia, from Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and so on, and so on,&#8221; Stupak noted.<\/p>\n<p> https:\/\/youtu.be\/JAg-QvPPIvE?t=43<\/p>\n\t\t<aside class=\"shortcode-also\" data-title=\"Read also\" >\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/drones-in-the-middle-east-why-ukraine-is-losing-the-initiative\/\">Drones Redefine the Battlefield: Ukraine Falls Behind<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\n<p> The heads of foreign concerns, he adds, are trying to belittle the achievements of Ukrainians, calling drones a designer that can be assembled in the kitchen. However, the real situation indicates a gradual loss of the market by large corporations, and Ukraine already has agreements with states that previously relied exclusively on Western developments, the analyst explains.<\/p>\n<p> Ivan Stupak compared the development of unmanned systems with the emergence of tanks during World War I. He noted that technologies have gone from primitive devices to complex autonomous complexes. Modern naval and land vehicles already perform the functions of full-fledged combat units, capable not only of conducting reconnaissance, but also of independently attacking targets using missiles or cannons, &#8211; noted the former SBU employee.<\/p>\n<p> &#8220;If you look at these Magura and Sea Baby drones, what they were like at the beginning: just a body, explosives, and from point A to point B it attacks. Like a torpedo, it&#8217;s a really huge system. It&#8217;s machine guns, cannons, missiles, air defense. It&#8217;s just a kind of terminator on the water&#8230; The Ukrainians really significantly improved, I don&#8217;t know, probably by 70 percent what it was,&#8221; says Stupak.<\/p>\n\t\t<aside class=\"shortcode-also\" data-title=\"Read also\" data-right>\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/strikes-on-russian-oil-ports-how-ukraine-managed-to-stage-a-deepstrike\/\">Striking Deep: How Ukraine Took the War to Russia\u2019s Oil Ports<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\n<p> The studio guest also recalled that at the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the military used simple civilian drones only to survey the area &#8211; now the equipment is capable of delivering water, evacuating the wounded, and carrying huge amounts of explosives.<\/p>\n<p> Despite this, future conflicts may require completely different approaches, because every war remains unique, and current achievements become the foundation for the next stage of technological confrontation, where the role of remotely controlled systems will only grow, &#8211; summarized military analyst Ivan Stupak.<\/p>\n<p> Meanwhile, Ukraine&#8217;s defense industry is working to create <a href=\"https:\/\/prm.ua\/ukraina-testuie-drony-iaki-mozhut-diiaty-razom-u-nebi\/\">&#8220;swarms&#8221; of interceptor drones<\/a> to more effectively defend the territory from massive Russian air attacks. This is a new stage in the development of such drones, which have become a priority for Ukraine&#8217;s defense over the past year due to their low cost and the possibility of large-scale production.<\/p>\n<p> By the way, Rheinmetall CEO Armin Papperger said that Ukrainian drones do not have a technological breakthrough and <a href=\"https:\/\/prm.ua\/hlava-rheinmetall-nazvav-vyrobnytstvo-ukrainskykh-bpla-hroiu-v-lego-u-kompanii-poiasnyly-slova-hendyrektora\/\">compared their production to \u201cplaying Lego.\u201d<\/a> After that, Rheinmetall published a statement in which it expressed respect for Ukraine\u2019s innovations and efforts in the war.<\/p>\n<p> Also follow <strong>\u201cPryamim\u201d<\/strong> on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pryamiy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Facebook<\/a> , <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/prm_ua\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">X<\/a> , <a href=\"https:\/\/t.me\/+rtV4dxYu2_cyNjVi\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Telegram<\/a> , and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/pryamiy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Instagram.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Large international corporations are beginning to feel a threat to their monopoly position in the arms market. Previously, it was believed that only huge holdings were capable of producing complex equipment, but modern combat operations have demonstrated a different reality. Ivan Stupak, a military analyst and former SBU employee, spoke about this on the air [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":1376966,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[76871,76872,76874],"class_list":["post-1376982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-2","category-news-feed","category-war"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1376982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/57"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1376982"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1376982\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1376966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1376982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1376982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}