US and Ukraine Draft Memorandum to Route Ukrainian Drone Technology into Joint Ventures on American Soil

The United States and Ukraine have drafted a memorandum that would open a legal channel for Ukrainian drone technology to enter the American defence supply chain through joint ventures and technology-transfer arrangements with US firms. CBS News first reported on May 12 that the agreement was negotiated between the State Department and Ukrainian Ambassador to the United States Olha Stefanishyna.

The memorandum would allow Ukraine to sell weapons to the US for the first time since Kyiv effectively banned arms exports at the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022 to preserve stocks for its own forces. According to CBS News, Ukrainian officials first pitched the idea of drone cooperation to the White House in August 2025, after President Trump privately praised Operation Spiderweb – a Ukrainian drone attack that destroyed dozens of Russian warplanes parked at airfields deep behind enemy lines.

Kyiv Post reported that one Ukrainian manufacturer alone plans to produce more than 3 million first-person-view (FPV) drones in 2026 – compared to approximately 300,000 produced across the entire United States in 2025.

Defense News reported on May 14 that the draft caps two weeks in which Kyiv adopted an export framework dubbed “Drone Deals,” launched a procurement coalition with European partners, and watched Washington lift a 1997 import ban – all while signing four bilateral export contracts and pursuing roughly 20 more across the Middle East and partner countries.

The underlying driver is a structural gap between production capacity and domestic funding. Ukraine’s defence production capacity has grown 35 times since the invasion began – from $1 billion to $35 billion – but domestic contracts covered only about a third of that last year, according to Defense News.

The National Security and Defence Council projects capacity will reach $55 billion in 2026, against approximately $15 billion in domestic purchasing power. Zelensky told a May 13 summit in Bucharest that surplus capacity in some weapon categories has reached 50%.

The memorandum is part of a broader export architecture taking shape simultaneously across multiple tracks. On April 28, Zelensky announced the “Drone Deals” framework – bilateral agreements covering the production and supply of drones, missiles, artillery shells, military vehicles, and software – with Euronews reporting that only countries that supported Ukraine since 2022 would be eligible.

Zelensky said nearly 20 countries are currently involved at various stages, with four agreements already signed. Approximately 800 manufacturers are now active in Ukraine’s defence sector.

Two days later, Ukraine and five European nations – Finland, Italy, Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom – signed the CORPUS (Coalition for Resilient Procurement and Unified Support) Memorandum on April 30, launching a defence-procurement coalition. Kyiv Independent reported that CORPUS chair Arsen Zhumadilov – who also heads Ukraine’s Defence Procurement Agency – stated the initiative would begin with information sharing and could expand to joint procurement. Denmark, France, and the Netherlands have registered interest in joining.

Defense News reported that six new joint ventures with Germany were announced over the last month, and Norway signed a cooperation declaration to mass-produce Ukraine’s mid-range strike drones. Some Ukrainian companies have already brought their technology to the US – CBS News reported that General Cherry, one of Ukraine’s largest drone manufacturers, signed a deal in March 2026 to produce drones alongside American military manufacturer Wilcox Industries.

The Pentagon has also invited Ukrainian companies to participate in its Drone Dominance initiative, a $1.1 billion program aimed at identifying drones for US military contracts. Separately, Fire Point – the Ukrainian company behind the Freya ballistic missile defence project – was in active talks with European companies to bring its interceptor missile to operational status by 2027. Zelensky has announced plans to open ten weapons export hubs across Europe in 2026, with production lines already running in the United Kingdom.

Stefanishyna told the Philadelphia Inquirer in April that more than 100 US investors have expressed interest in Ukrainian defence-technology companies. The US government has already bought an initial 1,000 P1-SUN interceptor drones from Ukraine. However, Kyiv Post noted that broader defence cooperation previously faced resistance within parts of the Pentagon and White House, particularly after the start of the US-Iran war – with President Trump stating publicly that the United States “does not need external support” in drone defence.