Ukraine says 95% of military drones now domestically produced

Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence has said that 95 per cent of drones purchased for the armed forces are domestically produced, highlighting the rapid growth of Ukraine’s UAV industry and a shift in defence procurement towards local manufacturers.

The ministry said the figure refers to procurement carried out by the DOT Defence Procurement Agency, which supplies equipment to the armed forces, Caliber.Az reports, citing Ukrainian media.

It added that Ukrainian-made systems now make up the vast majority of purchases in the unmanned aerial vehicle category.

According to the Ministry of Defence, the expansion of domestic production has been supported by the DOT-Chain Defence weapons marketplace, a digital procurement platform that allows military units to select equipment directly based on operational needs.

Officials said the system has increased competition among manufacturers, encouraged product improvements, and helped scale up production by making demand more predictable. Procurement decisions are increasingly shaped by direct input from frontline brigades, the ministry added.

The ministry also said that a revised procurement approach introduced in March allows drone requirements to be generated automatically using battlefield data, reducing what it described as human error, subjective influence and corruption risks.

It noted that spending on unmanned systems exceeded purchases of ammunition for the first time last year, and said that trend is continuing.

The expansion of domestic UAV production underscores Ukraine’s growing reliance on locally produced military technologies as the country adapts its defence procurement system during the ongoing war.