Ukraine's attack drone fleet faces a mini jet engine supply crunch

Specialist mini jet engine makers across Europe are ramping up production and investment to head off a looming supply shortage that threatens to hold back Ukraine's rapid deep-strike drone programme at a critical stage of the war with Russia.



Mini turbojet drones are faster than propeller-driven models and far cheaper than cruise missiles, allowing Ukraine to strike deep inside Russian-held territory while competing with more advanced Russian systems such as the Geran-5.



But a shortage of the mini engines is raising concerns about a potential supply crunch for deep-strike drones, more than a dozen arms experts, companies and government officials told Reuters.



"Europe has a massive bottleneck in mini-jet engine production," said Fabian Hoffmann, senior research fellow at the Norwegian Defence University College, adding the sector was also key to helping reduce Europe's reliance on the United States.



A Ukrainian defence industry source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the mini-engine shortage was "probably the main factor limiting the number of missile drones produced," describing it as a "big problem for our missile programme".