The United States is at the initial and most difficult stage of creating its own drone manufacturing industry and is significantly lagging behind Ukrainian volumes. Ukraine already produces hundreds of thousands of FPV drones every month, while the US is only trying to establish local supply chains and attract Ukrainian companies to deploy production on its territory.
The United States is at the initial and most difficult stage of creating its own drone manufacturing industry and is significantly lagging behind Ukrainian volumes. Ukraine already produces hundreds of thousands of FPV drones every month, while the US is only trying to establish local supply chains and attract Ukrainian companies to deploy production on its territory.
This was stated by Travis Metz, deputy director and chief operating officer of the US Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), in an interview with Reuters. According to him, in 2026 Ukraine will produce from six to seven million small attack FPV drones, which is approximately 500,000 units per month.
For comparison: under a special Pentagon program with a budget of $1.1 billion, a total of just under 200,000 drones are planned to be ordered by February. A defense department representative emphasized that going from zero to the first 200,000 is much more difficult than expanding existing production.
Complicating matters are new, stricter rules on components. In July, the U.S. government updated its supply chain policy to require all small UAVs to be manufactured domestically. In particular, 19 companies were banned from using Chinese brushless motors or batteries during the August tests. Metz acknowledged that most of the drones purchased in earlier phases likely contained Chinese parts, and finding alternative semiconductors is now a challenge.
To compensate for the lack of experience and scale the domestic market, the Pentagon is counting on Ukrainian developers. Six Ukrainian companies have been invited to the upcoming Gauntlet II exercises at Fort Carson. The main condition for receiving US defense orders is the creation of joint ventures with local manufacturers and localization of technologies.
Some companies have already begun this process. Ukrainian F-Drones has formed a partnership with Ukrainian Defense Drones and opened a factory in Ohio, and manufacturer General Cherry has agreed to a joint venture with Wilcox Industries of New Hampshire. The goal of this scheme is to transform Ukraine’s real combat experience into American production capabilities, rather than relying on imports.
It was previously reported that the American company ReconCraft will begin production of Ukrainian Magura unmanned boats at its facilities in Oregon and South Carolina. The company plans to produce hundreds to thousands of such systems per year for the needs of the US defense sector.
