More expensive than "Shahed": how monopoly and markups on parts make Ukrainian drones uncompetitive

More expensive than "Shahed": how monopoly and markups on parts make Ukrainian drones uncompetitive

Reuters published a story about how Ukraine is impressively fighting the "Shaheds". And there, among other things, they referred to data from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) stating that as of last fall, a "Shahed" cost $35 thousand.

This is significantly cheaper than Ukrainian FP-1 drones, for which "Fire Point" itself declared a price 1.5 times higher last fall - $55 thousand (data published in Associated Press).

The media has already reported about the "Fire Point" drone, noting that it came not only with a 25% allowed margin from the start. But also with parts at double the price, which doubled the manufacturer’s unofficial profits.

So, the superior Ukrainian drone turned out to be more expensive than the "Rashist" one, which speaks volumes about the economics of war. And there’s no need to even discuss technical comparisons of these drones.

The price of "Shaheds", according to the CSIS estimate here. This is an open text, so you can check the numbers yourself and criticize Ukraine’s enemies who only know how to carry water to the "Rashist" mill and discredit the precious efforts of Mindich and Shtilerman to sustain us in the war by suppressing competitors.

Whether competitors could produce cheaper and more effective drones than the president’s friends - we won’t find out anytime soon. Because years have already passed, and all this time only one production site has been seeded with money. So if the Ministry of Defence now opens procurements for competitors as well, it will still take time for them to reach normal production rates.

And we’re not even talking about whether the military will want to increase the variety of means to strike the enemy after years of working with a monopolist.

Blog by: Yuriy Nikolov