The French news outlet Le Monde cited French Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu’s announcement of a new partnership between France’s (unnamed) car manufacturer and a French SME defense company to produce unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in Ukraine, which he described as a “win-win partnership.”
Speaking shortly after one-to-one talks with Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov after the NATO headquarters hosted 28th Ukraine Defense Contact Group “Ramstein” meeting Lecornu said:
“We’re going to embark on a completely unprecedented partnership where a major French car manufacturer – which I won’t name it because that’s their job to announce it – will join forces with a French defense SME to equip production lines in Ukraine to produce drones.”
“Through this joint effort, they will create production facilities in Ukraine, where the drones will be assembled.”
He added that France was building on Ukraine’s expertise in designing and manufacturing battlefield drones along with its “ongoing tactical and operational training that reflects the reality” of the war in Ukraine.
In turn, Umerov, thanking Lecornu, said that Ukraine was “ready to provide this opportunity to the best manufacturers. Ukraine has combat experience, France has a powerful industrial base. This is a mutually beneficial and strategic partnership.”
Lecornu said that all of the work will be carried out by Ukrainian engineers: “There’s no need to ask French citizens” to work on the production line as Ukrainians “are better than us in their ability to design drones and, above all, to also develop modern combat doctrines for their use.”
Ukraine’s other partners step up
Discussions with other members of the contact group also raised the possibility of jointly producing other types of weapons. According to Umerov this included the setting up of production facilities by Ukrainian defense companies on the territory of Kyiv’s allies – with related setting up costs and production paid for by its European partners.
He said, “Our partners asked me if Ukrainian companies could build production in their countries to produce the latest products. Our partners are ready to fully pay for the production and the products will be sent to Ukraine for as long as the war lasts.”
He added, “Under this initiative, Ukrainian manufacturers can invest in partner countries, and companies from partner countries can build their mega-factories in Ukraine.”
Umerov also discussed further industrial cooperation with Spanish Defense Minister Margarita Robles with drones and other unmanned technology once again featuring in their exchange.
In another outcome from the Ramstein meeting the Germany / Sweden-led eight nation Electronic Warfare Coalition (EWC), that was established in April, expanded to thirteen as Belgium, Sweden, Italy, Turkey and Estonia signed up to the initiative according to Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense.
These developments came about as Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky also urged Kyiv’s Ramstein partners via “Zoom” to increase investment in Ukraine’s defense industrial base, a move which he said would ensure both his country’s and their own security.
According to European Pravda he said that Ukraine had already established partnerships to produce weapons on its territory before adding:
“We need to scale this up by at least 50%. The Ukrainian defense industry still has a lot of unused capacity – it only needs financing... We have only $17 billion for the purchase of weapons in our national budget – for an industry with a potential [annual] output of $35 billion.” He urged partners to make up the $18 billion funding gap.