Oleksandr Hrachov knows what it’s like to be on a battlefield. When the Russians attacked Crimea in 2014, and then annexed it to their territory, this Ukrainian engineer joined the army as a volunteer with the aim of fighting and opposing the separatists at the Donetsk airport, in the east of the country. “Yes, I was one of the cyborgs [soldados conocidos por su resistencia feroz a los separatistas] and I fought to defend our land,» he says. «When the Russians surrounded us, it was necessary to find a quick solution to conduct aerial reconnaissance. This is how the idea of drones in war arose.» That experience was the catalyst for rethinking war technology, giving way to innovations such as drones, today pillars of modern industrial capacity. Under this premise, TSIR was born, an unmanned aerial vehicle firm that, after partnering with the Finnish company Summa Defense, develops a strategic line of aircraft to supply NATO countries. «I would have liked to found a company that manufactured peace in the world, but the war that He arrived at my house, leaving me no choice. We did not choose war. The war chose us,» adds Hrachov. Ukraine has become one of the main producers of drones. According to Bloomberg estimates, the country has produced about four million devices annually, compared to the 100,000 produced by the American industry, the most powerful in the world. For security reasons, Hrachov prefers not to reveal the details of its production of devices. «Believe me, it is a high number and it is growing exponentially,» he highlights. And it will continue to increase. “Today we see continued escalation by Russia, despite all attempts to reach a peace agreement. We see examples of growing local aggression in different parts of the world and a general increase in global tension. All this drives the development of drones. Therefore, in 2026, 2027, 2028 and beyond, drone production will grow exponentially.» What he does share is his concern about the dependence on critical materials. «The manufacture of modern drones – especially for military and defense applications – depends on technologically complex components that require specialized mineral resources (lithium, nickel, graphite, rare earths such as neodymium or dysprosium)», argues the Ukrainian engineer. By For example, these elements are used intensively in motors and sensors that guarantee the high efficiency of unmanned systems. Under the advanced structure of drones hides a critical dependence on raw materials essential for the security of Europe. Each part, from the motors to the batteries and the sensors, requires specific metals that cannot be replaced without loss of quality. For example, the motors use rare earth elements to be powerful and compact, while the batteries depend on lithium and cobalt, according to a report by Rabobank. Gallium and arsenic are key to secure communications, and other minerals such as indium allow thermal cameras to function properly. The main problem is that most of these resources are located outside the European Union, which limits their ability to make independent defense decisions. “China controls between 70% and 90% of the market for rare earths necessary for battery materials. This creates serious dependency on defense and drone manufacturing supply chains around the world,” Hrachov emphasizes. “In general, global supply chains are concentrated in the hands of a few large players, which creates risks for the continuity of production of Western and Ukrainian manufacturers.”
Train specialists
But beyond raw materials, another great challenge for Europe and the world, comments Hrachov, remains the lack of human resources. “Europe must invest money in training top-level specialists in the manufacture, use and integration of unmanned systems in modern armies or in new defense alliances,” explains the specialist. According to their point of view, it is necessary to allocate funds to schools for FPV pilots (First Person View: those who use special glasses that show in real time what the drone camera captures), engineers and all the supporting infrastructure. “A pilot must be trained and educated, and then his knowledge and skills must be constantly updated in accordance with new challenges, technological progress and battlefield conditions,” he highlights. “Drones are manufactured and evolved much faster than people can learn to manage the architecture of the battlefield,” explains Hrachov. «Training a pilot or an engineer requires not only money, but also time. Our enemy has people, resources and money: everything necessary to carry out aggressive policies, aggressive provocations, hybrid wars and large-scale combat operations on the territory of another state. Today it is Ukraine. Tomorrow it may be a member of the EU or NATO.»
