1/ The Russian government is to implement what it calls a 'dronification' rating for Russia's regions, in which they will be assessed for their success in producing UAVs. However, as Russian warblogger 'Military Informant' warns, it's ripe for cheating and perverse incentives. ⬇️
2/ "The "dronification" rating of regions developed by the Ministry of Digital Development and the Agency for Strategic Initiatives (what a term—it makes you want to spit and wash your mouth out) promises, as usual, unprecedented benefits and prosperity for Russia. In the future.
3/ "You can read about it on every fence or hear about it on every radio. But what is likely to happen in reality—in the near future?
4/ "Regions have an incentive to improve their rankings. This promises certain benefits, but, above all, the "political position" of the regional leader depends on the rating—since it was as a result of the Russian President's instructions that the…
5/ …Ministry of Economic Development, the Ministry of Digital Development, and the Ministry of Industry and Trade included UAV-related indicators in the monitoring of national projects and the assessment of governors' performance. What could this lead to?
6/ "First of all, regions will begin purchasing inexpensive commercial UAVs en masse. Naturally, this will ignore "military" requirements for reliability, electronic warfare resistance, range, and combat effectiveness.
7/ "Furthermore, each region will create its own "drone centres" or "UAV technology parks." This will lead to duplication of development and inconsistent technical standards.
8/ "It's clear that, in the pursuit of speed and cost, many regional projects will be limited to manual assembly using imported components (motors, controllers, cameras).
9/ "At the same time, indigenous process chains (especially in microelectronics and software) will not be developed. This will create the illusion of import substitution, but in reality, production will remain vulnerable to sanctions and unable to scale.
10/ "If the Ministry of Defence or state corporations rely on the "drone rating" when distributing subsidies, state defense contracts, or grants,…
11/ …this will certainly lead to an irrational allocation of funds in favor of "high-profile" regions with strong PR support, rather than those actually developing effective combat UAVs.
12/ "And finally, personnel. Both production and operational. If governors have a personal (i.e., career-related) interest—and they certainly will—they will actively involve those who already know how to operate drones or can quickly learn to do so in raising the "drone rating."
13/ "I understand that assessing, say, the performance of street cleaners using drones is a fairly important social task. But I believe that an operator somewhere on the border of the Donetsk People's Republic is still more important.
14/ "While the idea of involving regions in the development of unmanned technologies has potential—if used wisely—the lack of clear criteria, quality control, and centralised planning…
15/ …turns "dronification ratings" into a tool that will undermine, rather than enhance, the actual production of combat UAVs for the Russian Armed Forces.
16/ "In the context of military conflict and sanctions pressure, it is especially important to avoid populism and focus on scalable, secure, and standardized production. And government officials' initiatives are hindering this." /end Source: https://t.me/milinfolive/15945...