Ukraine set to launch missile production abroad in June — military expert

Valentyn Badrak, director of the Center for Army, Conversion and Disarmament Studies, shared the information on Espreso TV.

In June, Ukraine will begin producing missiles (as well as drones and artillery) abroad. As part of the Build with Ukraine program, new production lines will be launched overseas to serve the needs of the Ukrainian Defense Forces. “It can be considered a significant achievement that the Ukrainian defense industry will also provide technology, and the weapons produced will be intended not only for the Armed Forces of Ukraine but also for European armies,” he commented.

According to him, in this context, it is entirely fair to note that the NATO countries’ agreement to increase defense spending to 5% of GDP largely includes the goal of boosting Ukraine’s defense capabilities.

“The ice has broken because the EU and the European part of NATO have finally realized that supporting Ukraine’s resilience is directly linked to the continent’s own security... Joint production in Europe is also a way to eliminate critical dependence on the U.S.,” the expert believes.

Germany was the first to announce its intention to finance the purchase of Ukrainian missile drones Bars, strike drones Liutyi, and interceptor drones Flamingo, worth €400 million. “And this is probably just the beginning. Germany also plans to allocate funding to Ukraine for the development and mass production of cruise missiles with a range of up to 2,500 kilometers, and this is serious enough that other European countries cannot ignore it,” Badrak notes.

According to the expert, another important area for the development of domestic missile technology should be the localization of production for Western missile systems and cooperation in scaling up well-known effective missile weapon systems.

“This area of activity is already being developed by the Ministry of Defense — it should allow Ukraine to acquire modern Western technologies and significantly upgrade production capacities by mastering the manufacturing of advanced military equipment,” Badrak summarizes.

• On June 24 in The Hague, Ukraine’s Defense Minister Rustem Umerov signed a document with Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen that paves the way for joint production of Ukrainian arms in Denmark.