Ukrainian Defense Drones (UDD), the American subsidiary of Ukrainian manufacturer F-Drones, is opening its first major assembly and manufacturing center in the United States. The facility will be located in northwest Ohio, and the total investment in the project will be $18.4 million.
Ukrainian Defense Drones (UDD), the American subsidiary of Ukrainian manufacturer F-Drones, is opening its first major assembly and manufacturing center in the United States. The facility will be located in northwest Ohio, and the total investment in the project will be $18.4 million.
This is stated in an official statement by US Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur. It is noted that the decision to deploy production facilities was made after the Ukrainian company signed its first contract with the US Department of Defense.
The new Ohio plant will create at least 300 jobs. The production site will meet the needs of the United States and its allies in FPV drones and unmanned systems, as well as serve as a base for training, testing, and hardware and software integration.
F-Drones CEO Stas Khutor emphasized that the company became the first Ukrainian manufacturer to receive permission from the Ukrainian government to export unmanned systems to the US military.
"This is a historic milestone, and the next step is to share the technology to produce these drones on American soil. Ukraine didn't just adapt to drone warfare — it helped invent it. We were the first in the world to turn drones into a tool of national defense and perfect them under fire," the company's head commented.
The Ukrainian developer’s entry into the US market was made possible by the US Department of Defense’s Drone Dominance program. This is a $1 billion initiative aimed at accelerating the development of the industrial base and rapidly providing combat units with inexpensive drones on a large scale. In the first phase of the program, UDD took sixth place, competing against the battle-proven F10 platform, and received a government contract for the supply of 2,000 FPV drones.
It was previously reported that a Ukrainian operator shot down a Russian Shahed for the first time while at a considerable distance from his LITAVR interceptor drone, developed by F-Drones.
