Three sources say Ukraine is on the verge of signing a major drone defense deal with the United States, a move that would create a broader framework for leading Ukrainian defense firms to work directly with American counterparts and the U.S. military. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is prepared to sign the deal on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York City.
According to the sources, the deal could be finalized at a future point when the U.S. is prepared to sign.
The Deal’s Roots
The Department of Defense and its Ukrainian counterpart have spent the last year building out a framework for expanding testing and production of Ukrainian defense technology in the U.S.
The idea for the project came from a war with Iran, in which the U.S. and its partners in the Gulf found no cost-effective way to bring down Shahed one-way attack drones, the same kind that Russia uses against Ukraine. While Iran was hitting American military posts across the Middle East, Kyiv sent drone interceptors and pilots to lend a hand.
A Slide in Washington
This August, the U.S. Army bid farewell to a drone battalion that was dedicated to studying Ukraine’s drone warfare. The same year, two generals were also removed or forced to retire early. Former Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George and former U.S. Army Europe and Africa commander Gen. Christopher Donahue both left their posts as the Army made these changes.
The Pentagon’s Program
The Drone Dominance Program at the Pentagon has opened up bidding to both American and foreign firms, with Ukrainian companies making up the vast majority of the competition. The program’s goal is to buy more than 200,000 drones by 2027.
Skyfall, one of Ukraine’s largest drone manufacturers, won the program’s first “gauntlet.” Perennial Autonomy and Neros won the second.
The Unmanned Problem’s Role
Deborah Fairlamb, founding partner of Green Flag Ventures, an American venture capital firm investing in Ukrainian defense technology, said Ukraine’s advantage lies in software, operators and teams adapting the technology. She said the deal’s value hinges on transferring Ukraine’s operational know-how alongside its technology.
In March, when Iran responded to joint strikes by the United States and Israel, the former Army Secretary Dan Driscoll reached out to Eric Schmidt, who founded Perennial Autonomy after his time as CEO of Google. Schmidt runs the U.S. drone company that has been active in Ukraine. Driscoll asked Schmidt for delivery of 13,000 Merops interceptor drones and 10,000 Bumblebee reconnaissance and strike drones for use in the Middle East. The Merops drones, made by Perennial Autonomy, use AI beacons from Sine Engineering, a Ukrainian defense communications company, and are built with Ukrainian warheads.
Before the drones were deployed in combat, Ukrainian know-how was required to bring them together with U.S. air defense radars.
The Army’s Purchase
According to Dan Driscoll, the U.S. Army bought roughly 50,000 drones in 2025. Zelenskyy has said that Ukraine plans to produce 10 million drones this year.
A Broader Agreement
The arrangement would set up a wider structure that allows major Ukrainian defense companies to partner directly with American companies and the U.S. military, according to the sources. It would also draw together Kyiv’s defense agreements with Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
What’s at Stake
The deal is about more than drones. It is about Kyiv’s operational know-how — the way operators adapt technology and put it to work — and the Pentagon wants a piece of that. Deborah Fairlamb said the deal’s value hinges on transferring that know-how alongside the technology itself.
“There is a sort of a misconception that you just buy the tech and somehow it’s going to work. Really what the West needs to start understanding better is that it’s not just about having the tech. It’s about how the tech is used.”
The Paper’s View
This deal lines up with the paper’s principle of smaller, more distributed production — less concentration of power in government and in corporations. The deal would bind Ukraine’s defense industry to American military production, which fits that same principle.
The facts are stated directly and given their source first. The opinion follows and is set apart as the paper’s view.
Where the paper stands
The paper backs the deal’s narrow aim of expanding testing and production of Ukrainian defense technology in the U.S. through a broader framework, and is against a heavy licensing regime that would lock out startup defense firms. The danger is big tech dominance, not the technology itself.
The deal’s stated aim is to expand testing and production of Ukrainian defense technology in the U.S., which the paper sees as a light touch that avoids the heavy licensing moat that only giants can afford. The Pentagon’s Drone Dominance Program already opens bidding to American and foreign firms alike, with Ukrainian companies making up the vast majority of the competition — a direction the paper backs.
The paper does not go so far as to support pauses, slowdowns or federal licensing of AI. It is against letting big companies hide their failures, but in this case the deal is narrow and focused on expanding testing and production rather than regulating them.
See the video the story is built around at CBS News.
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