Drone production at the front: how Nordyn is changing war logistics with mobile micro-factories

The war in Ukraine has shown for years that drones have long been consumables as well as effectors. As a result, manufacturing and repair close to the troops are gaining in importance. This is where Nordyn comes in with its concept of drone production near the front.

Several current examples show that this approach has long moved beyond the experimental stage. In Ukraine, for instance, mobile workshops such as Nebokrai have been approved, in which multicopter drones are repaired, maintained and assembled. During the exercise “Salaknib 2025” in the Philippines, the US Army also demonstrated how first-person view (FPV) drones can be manufactured and repaired near the front using mobile engineering and manufacturing approaches. The trend is clear: production, repair and adaptation are moving closer to the area of operations.

Militarily, this brings an obvious advantage: shortening long supply lines pays off, especially as logistics are becoming ever harder to protect – the keyword being the “transparent battlefield”. Production near the front cannot replace the defence industry, however; rather, it complements it. Semiconductors, sensors, cameras and batteries still have to reach the front from industrial structures in the rear, and this dependency remains.

Decentralised drone production instead of large targets

Nevertheless, such “mini-factories” have a fundamental advantage: their decentralised design. In combat, stationary factories, depots and workshops are lucrative targets, whereas a distributed network of small units can hardly be knocked out completely. Vitalii Pogrebniak heads the engineering department at Nordyn, which designs exactly such decentralised drone factories. He puts it like this: “If a huge factory is hit, production grinds to a halt. If one of our units is hit, we lose 30 drones a day, but ten other units keep running.” And after a strike? “We swap the unit and keep the line running.”

The company itself speaks of a network of mobile, autonomous micro-factories on all-wheel-drive vehicles and trailers that allows high-tech assembly and maintenance to be carried out directly on site. The core is not a single container full of 3D printers. Rather, it is a decentralised system that can be relocated quickly, keeps running if a node fails and keeps pace with the front. Particularly notable is how self-sufficiently the units operate. Pogrebniak: “We follow a hybrid approach: generators for the heavy work on the one hand, and battery storage with solar panels for stealth capabilities and greater autonomy on the other. This allows a unit to manage for days without a supply vehicle.”

For the chief engineer, this model, born out of necessity, points to the near future: “The age of large, static targets is over. Future conflicts will be won by those who can hide their production sites and, if necessary, relocate them faster than a missile can target them.” Low costs are another factor. According to Nordyn, a cruise missile costs more than ten times as much as one of these mini-factories.

Several units of the factories are already in use in Ukraine – the company does not disclose how many for security reasons. According to the company, the problem lies neither with the concept nor with the machines, but with the personnel able to operate them. “It is a challenge to find people who combine the mindset of an engineer with that of a soldier,” says Pogrebniak. “We need people who can repair a CNC milling machine at three in the morning and calibrate a flight controller in the rain.” Top of the priority list, therefore, is likely to be immediate deployment rather than lengthy testing and approval processes.

The approach is intended not only for the military but also for civilian purposes. In Nordyn's view, the “factories in a box” can be used universally, for example in disaster situations, for water treatment or for emergency shelters. There are also plans for the future: according to Pogrebniak, the system is to be developed to the point where personnel are needed only for logistical tasks. “Fully automated production is the only way to meet the demand for mass production.”

Nordyn thus represents a trend in which the final stages of military value creation – assembly, adaptation and repair – are moving up to the front. Micro-units that produce in a decentralised, self-sufficient way and are harder to attack thanks to mobility and camouflage are likely to gain strategic importance in future.

What advice would Nordyn's chief developer give to the lead engineers of Western defence companies? His answer is honest and urgent and can also be read as an appeal to look quickly for unbureaucratic solutions:

Leave your office, put on work gloves and go out into the field. If you have not destroyed your own product at least ten times this month, you are not innovating – you are merely documenting.— Vitalii Pogrebniak, head of the engineering department at Nordyn