Наталя Хандусенко Weapon 2 October 2026, 10:09

Drone and EW component manufacturers halt production lines due to new reservation rules — Forbes

Due to the May changes in criticality criteria and new requirements for confirming government contracts, some Ukrainian manufacturers of drone components and electronic warfare systems were unable to continue booking employees in a timely manner. This led to forced downtime of production lines, risks of mobilizing scarce engineers, and delays in paperwork. As of September, only some companies were able to resolve bureaucratic difficulties.

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Drone and EW component manufacturers halt production lines due to new reservation rules — Forbes

Due to the May changes in criticality criteria and new requirements for confirming government contracts, some Ukrainian manufacturers of drone components and electronic warfare systems were unable to continue booking employees in a timely manner. This led to forced downtime of production lines, risks of mobilizing scarce engineers, and delays in paperwork. As of September, only some companies were able to resolve bureaucratic difficulties.

This was reported to Forbes Ukraine by two manufacturers and one person from the public sector.

Changes to booking rules

In May, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine tightened the requirements for designating enterprises as critical . To reserve workers, manufacturers of UAV and electronic warfare components must now prove participation in government contracts — have a direct agreement or be an official subcontractor.

This has hit subcontractors and subsidiaries the hardest. To confirm their status, they are required to provide copies of financial statements with marks from regulatory authorities for the latest period, and instead of the usual acts of work performed, they are required to provide extracts from documents. The deadline for confirmation expired on September 1, which caused a bureaucratic collapse.

The main problems of manufacturers

Due to new requirements and delays from government agencies, some businesses have found themselves at risk of losing key specialists and have stopped operations.

At some enterprises, the surface mount circuit board line and flight controller production line have not been operating for about a month.

"We have a number of legal entities that have not been able to confirm criticality. The production of flight controllers is currently idle, the surface mount circuit board line has been idle for a month," says a top manager of a large drone manufacturer.

While the re-registration is ongoing, unique engineers remain without protection from mobilization.

"You won't find an engineer who does surface mounting of electronic boards on the street," emphasizes a company representative, noting that they have more than two dozen such key specialists.

It takes months to collect new statements from all contractors, forcing managers to look for temporary solutions to protect employees.

"To make these documents, I need to ask all contractors about it, it takes two to three months of work. I urgently rebook people - I arrange them in companies with clients where there is a reservation," shares the CEO and founder of a manufacturer of antennas for UAVs.

In addition, the situation was complicated by personnel reshuffles and the workload of the Ministry of Defense and the Defense Procurement Agency (DPA), where the signing of documents for individual companies was delayed by 2–4 weeks.

Solutions

By the end of September, some contractors were still able to resolve the issue and receive confirmation of criticality. Market participants note that part of the problem lies with the business itself, which needs to maintain better accounting records.

For companies whose subsidiaries still have no bookings, the solution is to quickly redirect orders to other factories. However, replacing scarce Ukrainian parts with imported counterparts is more difficult: “We will have to quickly switch to other companies that also have their own workloads. We cannot always use Chinese components due to localization requirements,” explains a top manager of a manufacturing company.

Manufacturers are already raising this issue with the National Security and Defense Council and the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine. Although appropriate solution algorithms are being developed, the problem remains acute for many enterprises in the industry.