The United States has concluded a major deal with Ukrainian manufacturer F-Drones for the supply of tactical unmanned aerial vehicles. The company became the first in Ukraine to receive official permission to export weapons to the US. This was reported by F-Drones CEO Stas Khutor in a comment to RBC-Ukraine.
Drones with combat experience
At the center of the deal is the F10 UAV — a tactical FPV drone developed by F-Drones engineers. The American side will receive not just a copy, but a modified version of the system that has already proven its effectiveness in combat conditions on the front lines since 2024. However, the design was adapted to meet the specific requirements of the Drone Dominance Program competition conducted by the US Department of Defense.
The choice in favor of the F10 was made by the Pentagon in February of this year following a selection process. In the first stage, the US military plans to use these systems for personnel training, testing, and evaluating their effectiveness under their own operating conditions.
Scaling strategy
The Drone Dominance Program is built on the logic of rigorous selection. Based on the results of several stages of testing, the US Department of Defense must determine a limited number of the most effective platforms. These models are expected to become the basis for equipping the US armed forces in the future, after which it is planned to scale their production directly on the territory of the United States.
The first batch of 2,000 drones produced in Ukraine is expected to enter the service of the US military by July. In the future, the US plans to gradually increase the level of production localization. In this regard, F-Drones intends to switch to a technology licensing model and organize the assembly of the F10 directly in the US.
New export mechanism
The implementation of the transition to local production in the US will be made possible thanks to a new mechanism for simplified export of military technologies, which the Ukrainian government introduced on July 1. This measure allows not only the supply of ready-made unmanned systems but also the export of Ukrainian technologies and components for their production in partner countries.
The new export model significantly accelerates bureaucratic processes: the term for reviewing applications from manufacturers has been reduced threefold — from 90 to 30 days. The simplified procedure will apply to supplies to countries with which agreements have been signed in the Drone Deal format.
