In December 1940, US President Franklin Roosevelt called America " With the outbreak of World War II, companies such as Ford, General Motors and Boeing repurposed assembly lines to produce tanks and bombers within a few months.. The mobilization of industry for the war effort then reshaped the structure of the American economy for decades to come, fostered innovation and made it the most developed nation in the world.. On a much smaller scale, but a similar transformation is now taking place in Ukraine. The armed aggression of the Russian Federation against our state, despite the dire consequences for the Ukrainian economy as a whole, provides a chance, thanks to the defense industry, to become one of the world's leading players in the arms market.
The following is the text in the original language. Varto believes that Lantz’s connections between defense production and other major sectors appear at first glance. The production of artillery shells lies heavily in the steel industry, chemical production, beating and machine manufacturing.. Ground-based robotic platforms will require electric motors, battery modules and power controllers - components that form the basis of electric vehicle production. The production of drones will gravitate towards optics, radioelectronics, processors, antennas, so that they will consume almost a dozen of virtual machines.
For wealthy Ukrainian companies, 2022 will become a turning point. Enterprises that produced metal for life-proof galuzes switched to plates for body armor. Chemical factories, which have done well, are mastering the production of powder charges. There was essentially a conversion in the opposite direction: not from defense to civil, but from civil to defense. And there is a pull towards modernization of equipment, raising production standards, updating the competence of the workforce.
According to estimates of the Kiev School of Economics, by 2025 the market for defense technologies in Ukraine will reach approximately $6.8 billion. The real size of the market is greater, since a significant portion of purchases is received through decentralized channels. This means that Ukraine already has an industrial infrastructure, which will create significant obligations, as the country states is important. This is a resource that can be either spent after the war or transformed into a base for export..
The most obvious and already frequently implemented channel for high-tech development in Ukraine is through the sphere of IT technologies. Until 2022, Ukraine was a great recipient of IT outsourcing: at the beginning of a large-scale invasion, the country had more than 300 thousand programs and developers who worked mainly on American and European projects. The war changed this vector. Software for controlling drones, target recognition algorithms, stolen communications systems, battle management platforms - all have become a priority for the Ukrainian defense industry. In 2025, Ukrainian defense companies and startups received nearly $129 million in investments and grants, which fell primarily on the software security segment.
It is important that these products are subject to convention and, by their nature, are direct for export. The drone control software module or UAV detection system can be licensed or integrated into the partner platform without physical installation.. The American technology company Palantir itself, with a capitalization of $340 billion, turned into the highest-cost US defense company, selling not hardware, but information systems. The most successful Ukrainian startups show potential for a similar model.
An equally important aspect of the defense reindustrialization of Ukraine is the renewal of the basic industrial facilities. Ukraine's metallurgical complex was declining after the Soviet Socialist Republic, with an important focus on manufactured products - slabs, billets, rolled products. This is a high-quality model with a low added varnish. Defense production is based on a completely different product: armored steel of specific grades, titanium alloys for aircraft components, aluminum profiles for UAV bodies. The development of these brands by metallurgical enterprises is, in essence, a transition to a higher technological frontier, which after the war can become the basis for the development of civil aviation and the automotive industry.
A similar logic applies to chemical production and the production of components. The production of gunpowder, rocket fuel, and vibukhov's fluxes will require chemical enterprises with strict standards of accuracy and technological discipline.. Companies that have mastered such technologies and tested them on the battlefield will produce special chemicals for pharmaceuticals, microelectronics and aerospace after the end of the active phase of the war..
28th quarter of 2026 President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky expressed his support for the export of Ukrainian armor and announced the launch of a special format of interstate spionism – Drone Deals. The format favors large-scale production and supply of drones, missiles, shells and other types of armor, military equipment, software, integration with defense systems of partners, as well as technological exchange. Drone Deals are already in operation in countries from three parts of the world: Near Meeting, Europe and the Great Caucasus.
Please from the edges of the Zatoki, laid earlier in 2026, and the first practical versions of this model. Massive attacks by Iranian drones on the region's infrastructure facilities have turned cheap flying and UAV detection systems into a priority for Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and other powers in the region. For Ukraine, it is possible to consolidate its presence in a region with colossal defense budgets. Sovereign funds Zatoki are an important potential source of direct investment in the region in Ukraine.
Even larger in potential – the European vector. The European Union's SAFE (Security Action for Europe) mechanism provides EU member states with a budget of up to €150 billion for defense procurement and increased production. Poland, Rumunia and Ugorsk region will simultaneously deduct over €76 billion from this instrument. The initiative transfers preferences to producers located in the EU or partner countries, so that the mechanism stimulates local production, and not just import of finished products. For Ukraine, which is a candidate for accession to the EU, there is a niche: the production of components or subsystems for platforms that are collected from European countries and purchased through SAFE.
Now we can talk about actions that can block such a transformation of the Ukrainian defense industry.
The first and the most unsafe – this is the deposit of the foreign, first of all the Chinese, component base. Significant parts of the electronics of the Chinese drones come from the People's Republic of China. This is a conflict through the risk that the partner of the Russian Federation can block this posture at any moment. Aside from this, there is a structural transition for entering international markets - many emerging powers will be encouraged to buy Ukrainian technologies, knowing that there are Chinese components in the middle. Localization of the manufacturing base and industrial enterprises with European partners is the basis for a change in defense exports and, at the moment, an incentive for the development of power microelectronics and equipment.
Another pasta is a result of competence. Few Ukrainian defense companies are registered outside the border: Great Britain, Germany, the USA and the Netherlands. Their motives are reasonable, because in these countries there is a lot of easy access to financing, protection from war risks, and easier access to foreign markets.. Because intellectual power, commands and evidence are lost in foreign jurisdictions, Ukraine risks losing the “testable Maidan”, whose potential is monetized by others. The Defense City regime, which transfers tax and regulatory benefits for companies that are deprived in Ukraine, also requires a system of national and foreign agreements, which allows manufacturers to plan.
The third paste is the risks embedded in the very architecture of the sovereign control over exports. Drone Deals, as a format, conveys that the power itself determines the scope of benefits, sees permission and establishes who and in what minds denies access to partner markets. This concentrates in the hands of a limited number of officials an extremely great resource in the form of the right to enter the billion-dollar global market..
Rheinmetall CEO Armin Papperger, commenting on the success of Ukrainian drone manufacturers, calling them “household gifts with 3D printers”. Regardless of the fact that the words were misinterpreted, they reflect the real position: the great traditional producers do not regard the Ukrainian model as a serious competitor in the long-term perspective. Their argument is that a decentralized number of small producers cannot replace a vertically integrated concern with a final cycle.
Drones and REB formed a tight, but narrow export product. Now the food supply is coming, as the industrial base of Ukraine will be at the beginning of the decade, regarding some technological changes, and with what kind of progress. The launch of Drone Deals is an important signal that a power will decide to treat defense exports as a systemic task, and not as a by-product of war..
In order to consolidate the role of Ukraine as a leading defense supplier and transform its competencies into a wider industrial base, open it right away, while the global drink is being tested in battle, military technologies.