Kazakhstan’s Air Assault Forces Launch In-House FPV Drone Production

Kazakhstan’s Air Assault Forces have set up an in-house workshop that assembles, tests, and repairs first-person-view (FPV) and other tactical drones, delivering finished units directly to army field formations rather than relying on imports or centralized state contractors. The Kazakh Ministry of Defense disclosed the milestone — more than 100 drones built since the line opened in December 2025 — in a January 2026 statement to domestic media, but the development has gone almost unremarked in English-language defense coverage until now, surfacing internationally only after the Kyiv-based outlet Militarnyi picked it up this week.

What Happened

According to Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Defense, a dedicated production and repair workshop within the Air Assault Forces began operating in December 2025. By late January 2026, the unit had assembled more than 100 FPV-type drones, each of which the ministry says undergoes mandatory quality-control testing before being handed to operational units. The announcement was carried by several Kazakh outlets, including Tengrinews, Inform.kz, Kazpravda, and Inbusiness.kz, all citing the ministry’s press service. No Western or major international wire service reported the story at the time, and it only reached an English-speaking defense audience this week through Militarnyi’s translation and republication — an illustration of how far Central Asian military-industrial news typically lags in the international press.

The ministry says the Air Assault Forces’ unmanned-systems units were originally formed roughly two years earlier, around 2024, and that contract personnel assigned to them have since been trained not only to fly drones but to build, calibrate, and maintain them. The workshop is described as running a full in-house cycle — assembly, configuration, testing, and delivery to troops — rather than depending on a single centralized state manufacturer. A separate operator-training program at the Air Assault Forces’ training center is set to begin in 2026, taught by instructors with operational drone experience.

The System: Kazakhstan’s In-House FPV Line

Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Defense has not named a specific airframe or disclosed unit costs, describing the output only as FPV drones and other tactical unmanned aerial systems “of both domestic and foreign design.” That phrasing suggests the workshop is reverse-engineering, license-assembling, or adapting existing commercial and combat-proven FPV designs — an approach widely used by Ukrainian, Russian, and now other post-Soviet forces building rapid, low-cost strike and reconnaissance drones from commercial components. The unit reportedly gained its first operational experience during the “Desant-2025” exercises, where Air Assault Forces UAV teams performed aerial reconnaissance, fire correction for artillery and aviation, and strike missions.

The scale disclosed so far — roughly 100 airframes in the program’s first weeks — is modest by the standards of Ukraine’s or Russia’s wartime FPV output, which runs into the hundreds of thousands of units annually. It nonetheless marks a structural shift: Kazakhstan’s military is establishing organic manufacturing capacity inside a combat branch rather than treating drones purely as an imported or centrally contracted capability.

Who Uses It

The confirmed operator is Kazakhstan’s Air Assault Forces (Десантно-штурмовые войска), the branch combining air-assault, airborne, and mechanized elements of the Kazakh armed forces. The Ministry of Defense states that drones produced at the workshop are issued directly to Air Assault Forces field units following testing. No export or transfer to other Kazakh service branches or foreign militaries has been announced.

Procurement Context: Diversifying Beyond Russia

The workshop’s launch fits a broader, well-documented pattern in Kazakh defense procurement. Kazakhstan’s military has historically drawn an estimated 70 percent of its arms imports from Russia, but Astana has spent the past several years diversifying toward France, Israel, Turkey, and South Korea. In the unmanned-systems space specifically, Kazakhstan and Turkey’s Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) have advanced a joint-production arrangement for the ANKA UAV, first outlined in a 2022 memorandum with state holding company Kazakhstan Engineering, with local assembly targeted for 2026; talks on a follow-on deal covering Baykar’s Bayraktar system have also been reported, though not finalized.

That diversification push has coincided with friction in Kazakhstan’s traditional defense relationship with Moscow. Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a review of military-technical cooperation agreements with both Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan in July 2026, according to regional reporting — a development Defense & Tech covered in the context of China’s expanding aviation ties with Kazakhstan’s air force. An in-house drone workshop does not replace those larger platform relationships, but it reduces Kazakhstan’s dependence on any single foreign supplier for one of the fastest-consumed categories of modern battlefield hardware.

Global Competitors and Regional Comparisons

Kazakhstan’s move mirrors, on a smaller scale, developments elsewhere in the region and on the African continent that Defense & Tech has tracked this year, including Ethiopia’s expansion of domestic drone manufacturing amid its own internal conflict. It also sits alongside a wider Central Asian trend: neighboring Uzbekistan has pursued a very different path toward reducing Russian dependence, publicly unveiling Chinese-built J-10CE fighter jets this month rather than building domestic capacity. Russia’s own defense industry remains the dominant supplier of heavier platforms across the Commonwealth of Independent States, but its wartime production priorities and sanctions exposure have left an opening that both Chinese manufacturers and low-cost domestic FPV programs are now filling in different ways. For broader context on the FPV category itself, see Defense & Tech’s overview of the leading combat drones fielded worldwide in 2026.

Why It Matters

FPV drones have become one of the defining low-cost force multipliers of contemporary land warfare, demonstrated extensively in Ukraine and increasingly in conflicts across Africa and the Middle East. A state building its own assembly and repair capacity inside an army branch — rather than solely importing finished systems — shortens resupply timelines, reduces exposure to export controls or supply disruptions, and creates a pool of personnel who understand the hardware well enough to adapt it. For Kazakhstan, a CSTO member state that still fields large volumes of Soviet-legacy and Russian-supplied equipment, that kind of organic capability is a meaningful hedge, even at a modest initial production scale.

The story also illustrates a structural blind spot in international defense coverage: a concrete capability the Kazakh Ministry of Defense confirmed on the record in January 2026 took roughly eight months to reach English-language readers, arriving via a Ukrainian outlet’s translation rather than direct Western reporting. Similar domestic-production announcements from other Central Asian, Caucasus, and African militaries likely go unnoticed for comparable stretches.

What Happens Next

Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Defense says operator training for unmanned systems will expand at the Air Assault Forces training center through 2026, alongside continued in-house production. Whether the workshop scales beyond its current output, or whether Kazakhstan formalizes a larger state drone-manufacturing program of the kind seen in Ethiopia, Ukraine, or Russia, has not been announced. The parallel ANKA joint-production line with Turkey, if it proceeds on its reported 2026 timeline, would give Kazakhstan two simultaneous but distinct unmanned-systems tracks: a heavier, imported/co-produced platform from Turkey, and a lighter, wholly domestic FPV line inside the Air Assault Forces.

FAQ

Does Kazakhstan build its own military drones?

Yes. Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Defense confirmed that a workshop within the Air Assault Forces has been assembling, testing, and repairing FPV and other tactical drones in-house since December 2025, with more than 100 units produced by late January 2026.

What type of drones is Kazakhstan producing domestically?

The Ministry of Defense describes the output as first-person-view (FPV) drones and other tactical unmanned aerial systems “of both domestic and foreign design,” without naming a specific airframe or manufacturer.

Is Kazakhstan reducing its reliance on Russian weapons?

Kazakhstan still sources an estimated 70 percent of its arms imports from Russia, but it has diversified toward France, Israel, Turkey, and South Korea in recent years, and Moscow ordered a review of its military-technical cooperation agreements with Astana in July 2026.

Is Kazakhstan also buying foreign drones, such as Turkish or Chinese systems?

Yes. Kazakhstan and Turkey’s TAI have an agreement, dating to 2022, for local production of the ANKA UAV, with assembly reportedly targeted for 2026, and a follow-on deal covering Baykar’s Bayraktar has also been discussed but not finalized.

How does this compare to Uzbekistan’s approach to reducing Russian dependence?

Uzbekistan has taken a different route, becoming the second confirmed export customer for China’s J-10CE fighter jet, while Kazakhstan’s current move is centered on lower-cost domestic FPV drone manufacturing rather than importing advanced foreign combat aircraft.

Sources

• Kazakhstan Ministry of Defense press service, statement reported by Tengrinews.kz, “В Казахстане начнут готовить операторов дронов для армии,” Jan. 22, 2026 — primary official confirmation of workshop launch and production figures.
• Inform.kz, “100 беспилотников изготовлены в десантно-штурмовых войсках РК,” Jan. 22, 2026 — corroborating official production figures.
• Kazpravda.kz, “В Десантно-штурмовых войсках развивают производство БПЛА,” Jan. 22, 2026 — independent corroboration citing the same Defense Ministry statement.
• Militarnyi, “Kazakhstan’s Paratroopers Launch FPV Drone Production,” Sept. 17, 2026 — first substantive English-language coverage of the story.
• The Diplomat, “Kazakhstan Is Slowly Integrating UAVs Into Its Armed Forces,” April 2026 — background on Air Assault Forces UAV unit formation timeline.
• Asia Plus, “Putin orders talks on revising military cooperation agreements with Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan,” July 29, 2026 — context on Russia-Kazakhstan defense-relationship friction.
• The Times of Central Asia, “Kazakhstan May Manufacture Turkish Bayraktar Drones” — background on Kazakhstan-Turkey UAV cooperation, including the ANKA production agreement.