MAINTENANCE ASPECTS OF UKRAINIAN DRONES

Abstract

Drones become part of our life, having a huge impact on it. What was beyond our imagination yesterday, becomes true today and will be even better tomorrow. Nowadays, with the help of drones we are able to detect in agriculture the parcels that require herbicides and fertilizer, develop researches in the atmosphere, monitor pollution and dangerous areas, have a better reconnaissance of the domestic infrastructure or obtain an easier victory in conflicts. The purpose of this paper is to briefly analyze the maintenance required by drone systems - going through a short history of drones, their evolution and classification, their use in the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian conflict as well as the key aspects of their maintenance process. This article aims to provide a concise analysis of the maintenance needs for drone systems. It will cover the drone’s brief history, classification and evolution, use in the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian conflict, and important maintenance procedures. Unmanned aerial vehicles have a very small tendency to be maintained in the same way as conventional aircraft (only by qualified aircraft maintenance personnel guided by complete maintenance procedures) due to differences in the personnel, equipment to be maintained, practices, and technical documentation, especially in a combat environment. In fact, untrained operators or maintainers without prior training in aviation maintenance constitute even the staff engaged.