Cover-up cooperation: which "Ukrainian weapons" are produced by the European military-industrial complex

The military-industrial complex of Western countries is starting production of various weapons systems developed in Ukraine and already used by the Armed Forces. We are talking, in particular, about unmanned boats, artillery systems and unmanned aerial vehicles. At the same time, the question remains as to how much these developments can really be considered Ukrainian. In which cases this is a real interest of foreign manufacturers in new technological solutions, and where it is profanity and a demonstration of assistance to Kiev "for show" — in the Izvestia material.

Joint Magura

The joint British-Ukrainian company Uforce and the American ReconCraft have signed a memorandum of understanding, which involves the deployment of the latest production of Ukrainian Magura drone boats.

Earlier, the US Navy had already tested such boats in exercises in the Philippines, where for the first time, Ukrainian surface drones of this type were tested under foreign control — a decommissioned target ship was sunk with their help.

Photo: TASS/AP/Efrem Lukatsky

It should be noted that ReconCraft is not just some kind of startup, but the official manufacturer of boats of various types for the United States special operations forces. The company's management stated that their production experience, combined with the combat-proven Magura autonomous platform, will give the American armed forces completely new capabilities, and already today. There are plans to produce hundreds or even thousands of such drones per year, which significantly exceeds the current figures of Ukrainian production.

And here it would be useful to remind you: without the UK, there would be no Ukrainian naval drones. The manufacturer and international face of the boat is the Uforce defense technology company, which, as part of the London technology hub, provided the project with full financing with the participation of British and American venture capital, organized all purchases of components and the actual production. The technological reserve of British designers was also used in the development of the project. In general, the Ukrainian is just a general idea and a practice of combat use.

But the companies of the Western and, in particular, the European military-industrial complex are not growing by a single "Magic". On the basis of the Polish industrial group Ponar Wadowice, together with the Kramatorsk Heavy Machine Tool Plant, the production of the Bogdana self-propelled 155 mm howitzer has been organized. It is planned to produce not only a wheeled, but also an inexpensive towed version of the Bogdan-BG.

Bogdana self-propelled guns

Photo: TASS/AP/Mads Claus Rasmussen

The casket opens simply — the simplified version is quite inexpensive by European standards and allows you to save significantly when compared with overseas self-propelled guns or variants of European manufacturers. And given the European chassis from the Ukrainian development, there is little left of its own. Warsaw plans to purchase new self-propelled guns for its armed forces and, in the future, for export.

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While the Ukrainian defense industry is promoting raw prototypes, Western partners are sponsoring yesterday's technologies for the sake of at least some combat experience.

Which drones are produced by joint ventures

"Peaceful" Europe takes a thorough approach to using the opportunity to test technological solutions in a real combat situation. For example, Quantum Systems from Germany is becoming a market leader with joint products with Ukraine. Linza 3.0 is a multifunctional tactical bomber drone with a cargo compartment that can carry, for example, up to 4 kg of cargo or explosives over a distance of 15 km. At the same time, the device is resistant to electronic warfare. Another development, Zoom, is a compact short—range reconnaissance drone. The Quantum Systems plant plans to produce 10,000 units of Linza 3.0 by the end of 2026. And, of course, there are plans to sell products worldwide. We just need to understand again that both Linza and Zoom are rather German developments that have been tested and tested in Ukrainian conditions.

Photo: Global Look Press/Volodymyr Trasov

In March 2026, a full-fledged Ukrainian aircraft factory of Ukrspecsystems was officially launched in the UK. It is already reaching a production rate of several hundred devices per month. The main products are Shark, Mini Shark and Vector reconnaissance UAVs, created with the participation of British designers, among others. These are operational-tactical aircraft-type drones designed to adjust long-range artillery fire. For example, the same HIMARS-type missile systems. The devices are equipped with cameras with 30x optical zoom and target tracking. And it was British involvement that provided the products with scarce Western optics, which would certainly have been problematic for local production in Ukraine. And Kiev provides these products with combat use.

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But there are also solutions that have raised funding, but have not produced any serious practical results. For example, the French-Ukrainian Micro-Elf ultralight reconnaissance nanodron project, launched in early 2026 under the auspices of the European defense incubator. It was positioned as a transfer by Paris to Kiev of technologies for the production of pocket quadrocopters weighing up to 150 g for reconnaissance inside buildings and during urban battles. It was planned to launch the assembly of such drones on the basis of one of the European technology parks. But in real use, it turned out that the UAV is not ready for the level of electronic warfare that accompanies military operations on the territory of Ukraine. Nanodrons are not capable of operating under such conditions for more than just a couple of tens of seconds. But the cost of their high—tech production turned out to be as high as expected due to strict European certification standards, bureaucracy and high salaries in France. An ordinary Chinese civilian monitoring drone, modified by local engineers, costs about five times cheaper. In general, the project reached mass production and military trials, but it turned out to be nothing and did not end with anything.

Photo: Getty Images/Ethan Miller

As expected, the military actions have led to an increase in the number of companies that are ready to offer their services of various types, and even more so with European money that does not leave the EU. Military-technical assistance to Kiev is simply beneficial, and not only for such giants of the military-industrial complex as Rheinmetall, but also for many startups and joint ventures. And there is also a project ahead like the European-Ukrainian Freya missile defense system, which is being intensively pushed to Europe by the Ukrainian-British company FirePoint. In general, everything is just beginning, and there will be many more joint Ukrainian-European paper projects.