Ukraine is prioritizing self-sufficiency in the production of drones as they increasingly dominate the battlefield. They now account for more than 90 percent of Russian casualties, according to Maj. Robert Brovdi, commander of Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces.
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Two companies in Ukraine that have built “China-free” drones were picked to compete for contracts in a Pentagon “drone dominance program” under which the United States plans to buy thousands of low-cost attack drones. One of the companies, Ukrainian Defense Drones Tech Corporation, where the men were soldering circuit boards in the basement workshop, was among 11 in all selected last week for possible American drone orders.
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Ukraine Defense Drones makes most of its own components, and European suppliers fill most of the gaps.
That reflects a sea change over the course of the war. In the first year after the Russian invasion in February 2022, nearly all of Ukraine’s drones came from China.
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By 2024, the vast majority of drones that Ukraine sent to the front were assembled domestically — but still almost entirely with Chinese components. A year later, however, the share of parts from China in Ukraine’s drones had fallen to about 38 percent, according to the Ukrainian Council of Defense Industry and the Snake Island Institute, a think tank in Kyiv.
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According to a Ukrainian official who asked for anonymity to discuss sensitive procurement issues, Ukrainian and Russian companies often buy parts from the same factories in China. Chinese bosses, the official said, keep a precise schedule at production sites so that Ukrainian and Russian buyers do not cross paths.
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By 2025, Ukrainian Defense Drones had expanded to produce flight controllers, speed regulators, radio modems and video transmission systems. Essentially, all its components were made in Ukraine except for the cameras.
The company has since gained technology for cameras, too, which it hopes to produce in Europe. For now, it buys cameras from another Ukrainian company that imports parts from Europe.
Mr. Buyakin described the limits to “China-free” production. While his company makes carbon frames for drones, for example, the carbon itself is imported, usually from China, because that is cheaper.
Batteries that power drones are also still largely produced in China, which dominates supply chains for battery materials like lithium and rare-earth metals.
Stories of non-Chinese manufacturing and supply chains are always heartening to me. China's done an excellent job of meeting the world's needs for cheap and quality products, but nobody should be...
Stories of non-Chinese manufacturing and supply chains are always heartening to me.
China's done an excellent job of meeting the world's needs for cheap and quality products, but nobody should be the only game in town.
From the article:
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Stories of non-Chinese manufacturing and supply chains are always heartening to me.
China's done an excellent job of meeting the world's needs for cheap and quality products, but nobody should be the only game in town.