Ukraine built an Amazon for combat drones, and no other military can match it

Ukraine’s military has built two online marketplaces where frontline commanders can browse hundreds of drone models on their phones, pay with brigade credits, and receive delivery within 5 to 10 days, according to a detailed report by The New York Times. The system covers nearly the entire Ukrainian armed forces, with 130 brigades now enrolled. Military analysts and Ukrainian officials told the Times they are not aware of any other military in the world doing anything like it.

The report, written by Maria Varenikova from Kyiv, describes how Capt. Denys Poliachenko, head of unmanned systems for Ukraine’s 25th Brigade, ordered a cold-weather long-range drone from his phone while sitting in an icy bunker near Pokrovsk. Russian forces were building up equipment about 20 miles (32 km) away. His standard attack drones, their batteries drained by sub-zero temperatures, could not reach that far. A few clicks solved the problem. We have been covering the Brave1 marketplace since August 2025, when we first reported on the points-for-kills system that feeds into it.

Two platforms, hundreds of drone models, zero bureaucracy

Ukraine runs two separate online procurement platforms. Brave1, created by the Ministry of Digital Transformation, lists hundreds of drone models from manufacturers that emerged during the war. It ties into a points system that awards credits for confirmed strikes against Russian targets. DotChain, run by the Defense Ministry, currently lists about 150 drone models from 30 manufacturers, with plans to expand.

The process works like any e-commerce platform. A soldier logs in, browses categories including multirotor drones, reconnaissance drones, and attack drones. Only a commander can finalize the order, paying with the unit’s allocated credits. The system generates paperwork, places the order with the manufacturer, and arranges shipping. Delivery takes 5 to 10 days.

Units can pad their budgets with bonus points earned from successful drone attacks. Ukrainian volunteers also launched a separate online platform in February that lets donors deposit money directly to a specific brigade’s account to purchase weapons.

Centralized procurement failed the frontlines

The marketplace exists because traditional top-down procurement could not keep pace with how fast drone technology changes on the battlefield. Col. Ruslan Habinet, commander of the 5th Separate Heavy Mechanized Brigade, told the Times that when drone pilots relied solely on large-scale Ministry of Defense contracts, drones came in the wrong quantity or the wrong quality.

Col. Pavlo Palisa, a former brigade commander now serving as a deputy chief of staff for President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said demand for drones grows every month with constantly changing technical requirements. New models that evade jamming, fly farther, and carry heavier payloads appear constantly. Traditional procurement cannot respond fast enough.

Arsen Zhumadilov, head of the Defense Procurement Agency, told the Times the technical solution resembles a consumer marketplace but goes further. Brigades can see exactly what each manufacturer has in stock and in what quantities.

Analysts say Ukraine has outpaced NATO on procurement

Marina Miron, a postdoctoral researcher at King’s College London, told the Times that Ukraine has mastered something NATO has not. Rob Lee, a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute’s Eurasia Program and former U.S. Marine infantry officer, added that different frontline units need different types of drones depending on their specific sector, making decentralized selection a practical advantage rather than an organizational luxury.

The program expanded in November to include 130 brigades, covering nearly the entire Ukrainian military. The NYT report notes that innovations like these may be difficult for Middle Eastern nations to quickly replicate as drone warfare spreads to their region, because fighting with drones requires adaptations that go beyond buying hardware.

DroneXL’s Take

This NYT report confirms what we’ve been documenting at DroneXL for over a year. When I walked the Brave1 pavilion at XPONENTIAL Europe in Düsseldorf last month, every Ukrainian company representative I spoke with said the same thing unprompted: this industry did not exist before the full-scale invasion. The marketplace system is the supply chain that feeds it.

What the NYT piece captures well is the feedback loop. The Drone Line program we covered in March showed that 1,000+ specialized drone crews already account for one in three Russian combat casualties. The marketplace is how those crews stay equipped with the right hardware for their specific terrain and threat environment. Combine that with the $878-per-kill economics we reported from Madyar Brovdi’s Unmanned Systems Forces, and you see why NATO procurement officers keep making the trip to Kyiv.

Capt. Poliachenko’s closing line says it all. The system works. The only problem is money. Expect at least two NATO members to begin formal pilot programs modeled on this marketplace structure before the end of 2026. The Pentagon’s own Replicator initiative is still trying to solve the same problem Ukraine solved with a website and a credit system.

DroneXL uses automated tools to support research and source retrieval. All reporting and editorial perspectives are by Haye Kesteloo.