One-third of Ukraine's defense budget for 2025 was allocated to acquire high-tech armaments, the director for procurement policy of Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, Hlib Kanievskyi, announced at a meeting with domestic companies specializing in cutting-edge military equipment, including unmanned systems.
"Defense procurement today is not just about meeting the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. It is also a powerful driver for the development of the Ukrainian technological sector, especially in the domains of UAVs, electronic warfare, and missile technologies," Kanievskyi noted. The event sought to improve the existing defense acquisition system through better transparency, competition, and paperwork efficiency.
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The ministry's current focus is to unify the requirements for unmanned aerial systems, allowing to enhance evaluation of market offers, simplify and speed up decision-making, and help businesses scale up production.
Defense Express notes, the establishment of clear rules and quality standards has long been a pressing matter in Ukrainian drone production. Back in 2021, when the Ukrainian-russian War was still relatively confined to Ukraine's eastern regions, private-sector companies shared their concerns about the lack of legal basis in the UAV field, or at least a clear vision of what an aerial vehicle's capabilities should look like, what armaments integrate, or how far it has to fly.
Generally, at the time, requirements set by the Ministry of Defense or the Ministry of Strategic Industries were mostly situational and tied to specific tenders. This has improved since the outbreak of the russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and especially since cheap FPV drones started reshaping the modern battlefield in mid-2023. Still, the blue collars have consistently been two steps behind in this race, while simple yet working models were already proving effective on war frontlines.
However, during the November 2024 demonstration of latest domestic developments, Strategic Industries Minister Herman Smetanin said there were clear requirements set by his colleagues from the defense department for unification and maintainability, and that the developers were trying to adhere when creating the presented products.
That said, the April 2025 meeting reiterates the commitment to create this unified standard and even offers introducing a new form of cooperation with contractors: comprehensive supply packages including not just the system but also associated training, tech support, maintenance, and modernization of equipment. At the same time, the participants agreed that the sphere needs larger financial investments, including foreign ones.
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