MILAN — The European Union and Ukraine have signed a drone deal to merge Ukrainian expertise in unmanned warfare with the continent’s industrial capacity, with the goal of ramping up production of drone and counter-drone systems.
“Together we can work on joint production, on making all of the components of the systems work, and provide both defense industrial bases with the impetus needed to step up investments and production,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said when announcing the agreement on Wednesday. Von der Leyen was in Kyiv to mark the war-torn country’s Statehood Day.
On the same day, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy noted that the country is currently producing 10 million drones per year and envisions this number rising to 20 million annually with the help of partners.
Under the drone deal, joint ventures will be established between selected Ukrainian and European defense companies to fast-track the development and manufacturing of unmanned technologies. An initial meeting is scheduled to take place in Brussels between the “19 founding members,” according to an EU press release.
Participating EU member-state firms include: ORQA (Croatia), Indra Group (Spain), Fincantieri (Italy), WB Group (Poland), Destinus (the Netherlands), Delair (France), Terma (Denmark), and Quantum Systems (Germany). The Ukrainian companies taking part are, for the most part, specialized in first-person-view combat drones: Skyfall Industries, Greentech Harvest, Tencore, Deviro, Vyriy Industry, Athlon Avia, Tehavtofart Pivden (TAF), UForce and F-Drones.
While most of the listed companies focus on aerial drones, two in particular — Fincantieri and UForce — will leverage their expertise in naval drones and serve as systems integrators in the maritime domain.
“In Europe, we already have huge technological and industrial capacity that can be deployed. And we have safe and secure production sites that can help to scale up,” von der Leyen said. “But we do not have that battle-tested knowledge and expertise that Ukraine has forged. So the point I am making is that we need to combine our strengths. Together, we can work on joint production.”
At the NATO summit in Ankara last week, Zelenskyy said that Ukraine has signed a total of nine drones deals thus far with individual countries.
In addition, the Commission has pledged to spend €1 billion ($1.14 billion) to support Kyiv’s drone capabilities as part of the €90 billion Ukraine Support Loan.
