Ukraine Agrees To Export Drones To U.S. For Pentagon Program

According to Lianhe Zaobao citing Reuters, Ukraine has agreed to export drones to the United States to take part in the Pentagon’s Drone Advantage Initiative, a source familiar with the matter said on Wednesday, July 22. The source said six Ukrainian companies have been authorized to export about 100 drones each. Kyiv and Washington had been negotiating the drone deal, and Ukraine has already signed drone agreements with several European and Middle Eastern countries. Ukraine has also started easing wartime limits on weapons exports, though the government still tightly controls which weapons can be sent abroad. The U.S. Department of Defense’s Drone Advantage contest is a USD 1 billion competition involving dozens of manufacturers of small attack drones, and the first-round winner was a drone jointly produced by Ukrainian drone maker Skyfall and the British company Skycutter.