NEW YORK, August 8. /TASS/. The United States is behind China in the scale of military production of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and the quality of such products, the Defense One portal says.

According to its estimates, if the US Army found itself at war, American manufacturers would struggle to produce the large number of high-quality small drones that the service would likely need - "unless the Pentagon increases its support for drone manufacturers, and soon."

In May 2023, Ukrainian forces were reported to be expending some 10,000 drones a month, but "US firms likely aren't making enough to replace even half of that volume", the portal remarks.

Defense One also pointed to the poor quality of US-made UAVs and their technological shortcomings compared to their Chinese counterparts.

"Products from Chinese manufacturers such as DJI and Autel are still able to perform better in almost every regard, making them the clear choice when purely price-to-performance ratio is a deciding factor," said one anonymous Western drone consultant with experience advising Ukraine.

Soren Monroe-Anderson, a co-founder of first-person-view drone company Neros, also told the portal that the price of an American drone can exceed the Chinese analogue a hundred times. According to the portal, the production cost of UAVs under the existing Pentagon program is $40,000 apiece. After some time, the price tag may increase to $65,000. According to Defense One, the US military is already experiencing "heartache" over experimenting with expensive drones given the risk of breaking or losing them.

On April 17, Mike Rogers, the chairman of the US House Armed Services Committee, said that the Chinese People's Liberation Army’s Navy was superior to the US Navy, and the same situation might soon occur in the Air Force and space.