JOHN HARDIE
The Ukrainian military announced last week that it appointed Colonel Vadym Sukharevskyi as the commander of its inchoate Unmanned Systems Forces (USF). Sukharevskyi shared some interesting details on Kyiv’s plans for the USF, including how it will recruit operators and scale and standardize the use of this rapidly evolving technology.
The USF’s formation and status
Since February, Sukharevskyi, a 39-year-old decorated combat veteran, had been serving as the deputy commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) responsible for unmanned systems. Rustem Umierov, Ukraine’s defense minister, officially appointed him as USF commander on June 10.
Sukharevskyi’s appointment follows a February 6 decree in which President Volodymyr Zelenskyy directed Ukraine’s Cabinet of Ministers and General Staff to develop proposals for the USF’s creation. In the Ukrainian system, the AFU includes three branches (vydy): the Ground Forces, the Air Force, and the Navy, as well as various independent combat arms (okremi rody syl and okremi rody viys’k). Zelenskyy’s decree puts the USF in the second category, along with, for example, the Special Operations Forces and Support Forces.
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