The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine has updated the procurement mechanism for fiber-optic-guided drones. The new system allows adjusting the cost of contracts depending on market prices for components to ensure the supply of equipment to the front.
The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine has updated the procurement mechanism for fiber-optic-guided drones. The new system allows adjusting the cost of contracts depending on market prices for components to ensure the supply of equipment to the front.
This is stated in a message on the official website of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.
The need for changes arose due to sharp fluctuations in the cost of key components — the optical fiber itself, coils and bobbins. According to the department, recently the prices for these items on the world market have changed by hundreds of percent (2-6 times) in a short period of time. Previously, manufacturers concluded contracts at a fixed price, but due to the increase in the price of raw materials, the implementation of the agreements became economically impossible within a few weeks. This created risks of disruption of supplies for the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Now, the State Logistics Operator (SLO), together with the Cabinet of Ministers and the Defense Procurement Agency, has implemented a mechanism that allows for the contract price to be revised in accordance with the current cost of components. The first additional agreements, taking into account the increase in the price of fiber optic, began to be signed at the end of March.
The Ministry of Defense noted that the dynamics of the procurement of fiber-optic drones is rapidly increasing. If 374,000 units were delivered for the whole of 2025, then as of April 2026, the army had already received more than 92% of the volumes of the entire previous year. The updated procurement mechanism should maintain this pace and help Ukrainian manufacturers scale up capacity.
Earlier, the Ministry of Defense presented a universal ground station for fiber-optic drones, which should replace dozens of different control stations.
