It is no longer so much the West supplying Kiev with weapons: rather, it is Kiev supplying the West with military knowledge. In a reversal that is reshaping the geometry of the defense industry, Ukraine – since 2022 unwillingly turned into a war laboratory – now exports its know-how in drones and electronic warfare to Europe.
We are witnessing the rise of the industrial model known as “Build With Ukraine”: an international cooperation strategy launched in the defense sector to relocate and scale the industrial production of military technologies outside Ukrainian territory, which includes equal co-production and the establishment of production lines abroad, combining Ukrainian field experience with Western infrastructure.
A GERMAN HEART FOR UKRAINIAN DRONES
The heart of this transformation beats in Germany, just a few kilometers from Munich, where the German company Quantum Systems and the Ukrainian Frontline Robotics have launched a joint venture for the production of the Linza drone. The device incorporates anti-jamming modules developed in Ukraine and navigation systems based on artificial intelligence. The planned production capacity is ten thousand units per year: a portion initially destined for the Ukrainian front, the other for the defense markets of the European Union and NATO.
The initiative is part of a broader plan promoted by German Economy Minister Katherina Reiche, which aims to connect Ukrainian military innovation with the German manufacturing sector, penalized by a deep structural crisis. In the already operational German factories, about eighty percent of the workforce is composed of Ukrainian citizens: refugees and wounded veterans who, through factory work, maintain a direct link with the defense operations of their country.
Similar partnerships are proliferating on a continental scale. In Denmark, rocket propellants are produced, while the collaboration between the software house Auterion, an international company with offices in the USA and Munich, and the Ukrainian drone manufacturer Airlogix, supported by German government subsidies, is aimed at manufacturing medium-range aircraft.
THE EUROPEAN RESPONSE TO TRUMP’S WITHDRAWAL
The economic mechanism supporting this industrial network was designed after the Trump administration’s decision to suspend American military aid to Ukraine in 2025. Europe responded by allocating a comprehensive package of ninety billion euros, with additional contributions from the United Kingdom and Norway. The German government alone has allocated over eleven billion euros for the current year, part of which flows directly into co-production programs.
The motivation driving the relocation of production outside Ukraine is strategic. Facilities located in Germany or other NATO countries are not exposed to Russian bombings that systematically target Ukrainian industrial infrastructure, and benefit from a stable energy supply that ensures production continuity. However, even on European soil, security remains an absolute priority: for fear of sabotage by Russian intelligence services, the location of the plants is classified and confidentiality protocols are strict.
CONTINUOUS INNOVATION
The strategic value of this cooperation is evidenced, negatively, by the speed with which weapons become obsolete. The Vector drone, already widely used by Ukrainian forces to strike Russian positions, lost effectiveness in a short time due to the accelerated evolution of electronic jamming systems developed by Moscow.
For this reason, Ukrainian technicians are permanently present in European factories, updating in real time the specifications of devices in production. Russian propaganda has already targeted these industrial initiatives, a sign that the Kremlin perceives them as a strategic threat.
