Members of the British Parliament suggested creating the UK-Ukraine Defence Tech Production Hub, headquartered in the United Kingdom. This idea, announced by a cross-party group on defense technologies, was described by its co-chair, Fred Thomas, as a "strategic no-brainer."
Thomas explained that London spends about £3 billion (~€3.75 billion) on weapons for Ukraine annually, and creating the joint hub would allow them to "spend some of this money on UK soil to manufacture hardware immediately donated in kind." The British side would establish production facilities domestically, while Ukraine would "ensure the production hub has access to current innovation and battlefield requirements."
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Basically, it's about producing Ukrainian-developed weapons for Ukraine on British territory. Kyiv gets more weapons, and the UK enjoys modernized defense infrastructure and more jobs. The project is positioned as a "public-private initiative, mobilising private capital investment" for that purpose.
The parliamentarian also stressed that similar proposals have already been voiced by "multiple different groups not connected to each other" and his effort is aimed at consolidating them to convince the British government.
Overall, such a form of partnership might prove a balanced win-win situation. After all, not just the current but any British government will have an easier time explaining to the public the billions of pounds of annual defense spending. Ukraine, on the other hand, will receive weapons that have proven their effectiveness on the battlefield and include its specialists in the process, effectively turning this venture into a powerful economic, industrial, and scientific hub for both defense industries.
It is worth noting that the Ukrainian Armed Forces already operate one of the direct results of the close partnership between the two countries' defense industries. It is the Gravehawk air defense missile system, which uses a British sensor suite and fire control system with Ukrainian R-73 missiles.
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