Ukrainian Ministry of Defense has signed a memorandum on a long-term strategic partnership on drone production with Swift Beat LLC, a U.S. company. Although it may seem like an ordinary case, as dozens of drone makers had partnered with Ukraine before, if you look more closely, very interesting facts are starting to surface.
Notably, the agreement was signed in the presence of the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy between the Minister of Defense Rustem Umerov and the CEO of Swift Beat Eric Schmidt, in Denmark. The deal stipulates an expansion of the American company's production capacities and supplying Ukraine with interceptor drones "on a priority basis, under special terms and at cost price."
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The Presidential Office states that "hundreds of thousands of drones" will be delivered this year already, with further output increase in 2026. As also mentioned, the U.S. company already has a significant presence in Ukraine and specializes in UAVs with artificial intelligence. This is where we should dig a little deeper.
The first thing to look at is Swift Beat itself, owned by the Tallinn-based Volya Robotics OÜ, whose sole beneficiary is the aforementioned Eric Schmidt. Another interesting fact about the new partner of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense is its initiated renaming to White Stork, which for some reason was either not completed or canceled.
That noted, we can already say that although Swift Beat had not yet a widely known name in the public domain, the"White Stork" has actually made a splash of sorts. In 2024, a startup under this name was reported developing a cheap mass-produced drone with artificial intelligence for the needs of Ukraine.
The connection between the companies can be traced via Eric Schmidt, who, in addition to being involved in their operations, actively toured Ukrainian enterprises and technology test sites, studying our experience and offering his help. However, Schmidt's using a tangled network of companies complicates digging for details, enshrouding these activities in secrecy.
Therefore, let's take a closer look at Swift Beat's director himself. Until February 2020, he worked at Google for 19 years, 10 of them as CEO. At the same time, Schmidt is no stranger to the defense industry either. In 2016–2020 he headed the Defense Innovation Advisory Board at the Pentagon, and in 2019–2021 he was on the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence (NSCAI) under the U.S. President.
Since the beginning of russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Schmidt has actively promoted drones as a cheap and effective weapon. He has also injected millions of dollars in the Ukrainian D3 startup accelerator and met with representatives of the Ukrainian government.
As we can see, Schmidt is not some little-known person associated with shady companies but a big persona in the niche of artificial intelligence and Western defense, who had contacts in Ukraine. That is, the secrecy surrounding the involved companies can be attributed to the intent to advance work confidentially.
As for the products supplied to Ukraine under the agreement, the Presidential Office lists interceptor drones, quadcopters for reconnaissance, surveillance, fire control and logistics, as well as medium-class strike drones. All of them can use artificial intelligence for guidance, navigation and adjusting the pilot's command.
In the future, the parties plan to develop interceptors of cruise and ballistic missiles, automatic turrets, and reconnaissance platforms. Defense Express assumes that production facilities will be deployed in Denmark, where the memorandum was signed, or in Estonia, where Volya Robotics OÜ is registered.
Hopefully, more information will transpire later about Swift Beat products and their capabilities, which are currently kept in total secrecy.
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