Russia’s current state defense procurement law does not allow drones to be legally sold to the Defense Ministry and fails to reflect the rapid pace of modern military technology development, according to Alexey Chadaev, CEO of the Ushkuynik Research and Production Center, which develops and manufactures combat drones.

Chadaev said Federal Law No. 275 needs to be changed, but argued that the process should not be rushed. In his view, lawmakers need to carefully reconsider not only individual provisions but also the broader approach to state defense procurement.

He pointed to the dramatically shorter development cycle of modern military equipment. In the past, a major design bureau could spend five years developing a new system, obtaining approvals and conducting tests before it entered service. Today, Chadaev said, some technologies become obsolete within three months, making it impractical to repeat the entire approval procedure for every new version.

The problem is particularly acute for drones. According to Chadaev, new UAVs are often delivered to the front through what he described as «workaround schemes» because the existing system does not provide a legal mechanism for selling them to the Defense Ministry.

As a result, people involved in supplying drones can face criminal prosecution for embezzlement despite delivering UAVs needed at the front, he said.

Chadaev expressed hope that the next composition of Russia’s State Duma will amend the state defense procurement law to reflect the speed at which modern military technologies are developed and upgraded.