Germany and Ukraine team up to develop drones

Necessity is the mother of invention. This old adage also holds true in the face of Russia’s illegal war of aggression against Ukraine. Ever since Russian troops launched their full-scale invasion on 24 February 2022, Ukraine has been putting up resistance - with courage, international support and, not least, ingenuity. The country has been particularly successful in further developing drone technology. These uncrewed aerial vehicles also play a special role in its partnership with Germany. Both states are profiting, as illustrated for example by the cooperation with the German company Quantum Systems, which makes interceptor drones, among other things. 

Soaring demand 

Quantum Systems started operating in Ukraine just after the invasion was launched in 2022. It now runs its biggest facility outside Germany there, employing around 1,000 people. Collaboration has also been widened to include Germany: since the end of 2025, Quantum Systems and the Ukrainian company Frontline Robotics have been setting up the first fully automated industrial drone production facility in Germany. In February 2026, when German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy visited Gauting in Bavaria, the first multipurpose drone (for a range of applications including reconnaissance and combat missions) produced by the German-Ukrainian joint venture Quantum Frontline Industries was already handed over to Ukraine – a highly symbolic first step towards the delivery of tens of thousands more drones to the Ukrainian armed forces. In October 2026, the company was awarded a follow-up contract to supply multipurpose and reconnaissance drones in 2027. To meet the growing demand, the production capacity is to be increased five-fold. 

Pistorius: Everyone benefits 

As Pistorius stressed: “The whole undertaking has advantages for everyone: it allows us to support Ukraine in its struggle, while at the same time profiting ourselves because we are able to learn from the incredible data volumes and all the experience that Ukraine is acquiring on the battlefield.”  

The German manufacturer Helsing has already delivered around 10,000 combat drones to Ukraine. Germany has also pledged to finance 15,000 interceptor drones. They will be produced in Ukraine by Quantum Systems and another Ukrainian partner, WIY Drones. In their joint venture Quantum WIY Industries, the two companies are further developing these defensive systems - some of which feature AI-assisted image recognition. 

New defence contracts  

German-Ukrainian defence cooperation picked up pace significantly in the autumn of 2026 when 14 cooperative ventures with a total value of 6.6 billion euros were agreed during a visit to Kyiv by Federal Chancellor Friedrich Merz. One focus is on repelling Russian drone attacks. The cooperation extends beyond drones, however: German defence manufacturer Diehl Defence will supply additional IRIS-T air defence systems. The Bavarian company Arx Robotics also develops and supplies uncrewed ground vehicles for Ukraine. Here too, further development of the technology draws on the experience of the Ukrainian armed forces. 

Ukrainian strike drones with German software 

The German government is expressly committed to further expanding drone cooperation. In their April 2026 declaration on a strategic partnership, Germany and Ukraine stated that one goal was to supply mid- and long-range strike drones to the Ukrainian armed forces. A joint venture between the German company Auterion and its Ukrainian partner Airlogix has already begun serial production of such drones. As Airlogix CEO Vitalii Kolesnichenko emphasised: “We are grateful to the German government for its trust and to our partners at Auterion for the speed and seriousness they bring to this work.” The Airlogix strike drone runs on Auterion software and can be produced on an industrial scale in a protected setting in Germany. 

And the network of partners that are jointly working on innovations is continuing to grow: for example, the German-Ukrainian drone manufacturer United Unmanned Systems has entered into a partnership with the Estonian-Ukrainian AI specialist DOD Solution. The objective is to develop drones that can automatically identify targets and pursue them with the aid of artificial intelligence. The cooperation is focusing among other things on automatic target recognition, visual navigation and support for autonomous flight manoeuvres.