Translated by Martina Ravasi
For years Ukraine has been mainly described as a country under attack, financially and military dependent on its Western partners. However, today something is changing. Wars in the Middle East and the increasing threat from Iranian drones have opened a new phase where Kyiv isn’t simply asking for support, but it’s an exporter of strategic expertise. In a world where low-cost drones are reshaping conflicts, Ukrainian on-the-ground know-how is becoming a fundamental resource. For many regional powers the Ukrainian crisis clearly raised an issue, namely the fact that shooting economic drones down with very expensive defence systems is a hard strategy to keep over time. Attempts to counter Iranian drones in the States of the Gulf through Western air defence systems missiles had limited results. That's the paradox of contemporary wars, where an attacker can saturate the airspace with relatively low-cost assets, while a defender risks spending much more to neutralize them. Against this background, Ukraine believes they have a comparative advantage in this field. Indeed, following four years of war against Iranian and Russian drones, Kyiv affirms they have developed more effective and cheaper responses. Volodymyr Zelenskyj clearly said that today only Ukrainian expertise can really help intercept massive attacks from Shahed drones. However, we have to deal not only with interceptors, since even well-trained pilots, softwares, radars, operative coordination and on-the-ground experience come into play. This know-how is now projected outside Ukrainian borders. Indeed, Ukraine has deployed specialized military units in five Middle Eastern countries – the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait and Jordan – to help intercept Iranian drones and provide technical support on air defence – 228 specialists in total. The political meaning of this manoeuvre is evident. Ukraine is no longer a territory where new war tools are tested, but it’s trying to export its knowledge. Of course, Ukraine doesn’t mean to do so without any advantage. Indeed, Zelenskyj declared that Kyiv is expecting to receive new technologies and funds in exchange for supporting its Middle Eastern partners. Moreover, the Ukrainian President specified that Ukrainian national defence must benefit from knowledge transfers.
Kyiv keeps asking for stronger defence systems, e.g. Patriot missiles. Concretely, Ukraine would like to offer its operative expertise in exchange for tools allowing to reinforce its internal security. The core of this new posture involves the industrial sector too. The Ukrainian sector of drones is developing low-cost interceptors capable to respond to the main issue of modern defence - halting an economic threat without exaggerated costs. Among the most quoted cases there’s the STING drone, created by Wild Hornets and described as a relatively cheap drone that has already been used against Russia. According to the company, this system came into use in 2025 and has already shot down thousands of Shahed drones. The asset of these systems isn’t simply technologic, but also economic. Indeed, a Ukrainian interceptor can cost around 2,000 dollars or even less, while a Shahed drone is much more expensive. This difference changes the strategic balance. While previously shooting a drone down implied using very expensive missiles, now Ukraine aims to create a sustainable response even in the long term. In a saturation war, sustainability has almost the same importance as precision. Moreover, there’s another underestimated element – human expertise, since training a specialized pilot in anti-drone defence requires five or so months. Being aware of how a UAV works isn’t enough since we need reflexes, coordination and constant training to hit quick and moving targets. For this reason, Ukraine can’t only offer technical platforms, but also instructors, operative staff and mass formation models. Therefore, the real item that can be exported isn’t a single drone, but a defence ecosystem. At the same time, this advantage may not be long-lasting since many Ukrainian technologies aren’t hard to copy. This is due to the fact they are based on heavily modified FPV drones instead of irreplicable systems. As a result, international demands can be high today, but they risk dropping when other actors manage to reproduce similar solutions. For this reason, accelerating exports, agreements and its market presence is urgent for the Ukrainian sector. Therefore, there is no need to be surprised when Zelenskyj said that he had already received eleven requests from some Iranian neighbourhood countries, as well as Europe and the United States, about how to counter Iranian drones. On one hand, Kyiv has already met some of these requests through technical support. On the other hand, Zelenskyj also made a reference to the project of a possible agreement with Washington about drones. This project, which was first designed last year, would include both Ukrainian expertise and its productive capabilities that still haven’t been used so far.
Although Trump said the US doesn’t need any help against Iranian drones, Kyiv keeps trying to be a potentially useful partner even for Washington. The problem is that the Ukrainian legal framework doesn’t seem to catch up with the ambitions of this sector and for internal producers exporting drones remains extremely hard – in spite of announcements about military exports. Following the Russian invasion on a large scale, military equipment exports were frozen, and today Ukrainian authorities are still looking for a framework that suits both private companies and the government. Nevertheless, for many companies the issue is now crucial, since the number of drones producers soared during the war, but the national procurement capacity has already reached its peak. If the government slows down procurement and export bans aren’t lifted, many companies risk halting their production. From this perspective, export isn’t only a trade opportunity, but it’s a way to preserve the industrial sector that fuels national defence. For this reason, international cooperation projects are increasing, such as the agreement between the Ukrainian company Ukrainska Bavovna and the Czech Pavetra Aerospace concerning the development and a joint production of UAV drones and interceptors. This international industrial dimension shows that Ukraine is not only intentioned in producing more, but it also would like to turn its military innovation into a transnational network of cooperation, investments and shared production. Whereas the conflict taught Ukraine to innovate quickly, the international market can help this country scale up these capabilities. Ultimately, what’s happening is going beyond drones' sales. Ukraine is trying to turn its war trauma into a lever for external projection. All technologies, training and tactics developed against Russia are becoming diplomatic, industrial and strategic assets. If Kyiv continues this way, Ukraine may not only be considered as the symbol of resilience against Russian aggressions, but it may also become a global laboratory of drone counter-warfare. In an area where threats fly low and are low-cost and saturate defence systems, Ukraine’s expertise may be more valuable than many traditional arsenals.
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