Coming on the heels of the US military’s first use of naval drones in combat just over a week ago, the maker of Ukraine’s battle-tested Magura naval drones is partnering with an American boatbuilder to produce drone boats in the US for the “Arsenal of Freedom.”
The maker of Ukraine’s Magura naval drone, UK-based Ukrainian company UFORCE, is teaming up with US company RECONCRAFT to build uncrewed surface vessels in the US. The American firm is known for special operations watercraft.
UFORCE said that through the new partnership, it will “make available to the United States its combat-proven full-stack aerial, maritime, and ground unmanned systems, advanced autonomy software, and command-and-control technologies.”
UFORCE CEO Oleg Rogynskyy said in a statement that the relationship means that “these combat-proven capabilities will become available to the US, combining Ukrainian battlefield innovation with American manufacturing excellence.”
He said his company is “exceptionally positioned to deliver capabilities already tested by some of the world’s most sophisticated militaries under the most demanding battlefield conditions.” He added that “today’s combat environments show that autonomous warfighting capabilities are a must-have.”
Joe Silkowski, the cofounder of RECONCRAFT, which has contracts with the US Navy for its own unmanned vessels, said that working with UFORCE “combines our manufacturing expertise and capabilities with the combat-proven autonomy of the MAGURA platform, allowing us to deliver greater capability to American warfighters faster than developing a new system from the ground up.”
Naval drones have become one of Ukraine’s most effective weapons at sea, allowing it to engage Russia’s navy despite lacking a comparable fleet of conventional warships. Those attacks have damaged or destroyed Russian vessels and helped force much of the Black Sea Fleet away from occupied Crimea.
The Magura family of naval drones is among Ukraine’s most famous and has been used to attack Russian ships and to launch missiles at Russian aircraft. UFORCE said they “contributed to the destruction of more than a dozen Russian warships in the Black Sea.”
The new announcement on naval drone production in the US comes as the American military, like other allies, increasingly embraces these tools as a valuable combat capability. It executed its first combat strike using naval drones earlier this month.
CENTCOM said that three Saronic Corsair unmanned surface vessels hit an Iranian port at Bandar Abbas Naval Base, calling it the first time that US forces had employed naval drones in combat.
The US Navy had previously used Corsair drones to rescue the crew of a downed US Army AH-64 Apache helicopter, and it had also used sea drones to clear mines in the Strait of Hormuz. The strike on Iran’s port, however, which saw it target an Iranian submarine and ship maintenance facility, was the first offensive use.
The Navy is also aware of how the technology could be used against it, and it is training for scenarios like naval drone attacks on US warships.
Western defense companies are increasingly teaming up with their Ukrainian counterparts, with both sides seeking to combine Western manufacturing capacity with Ukrainian battlefield experience.
It is a mark of approval for Ukraine’s defense industry, which started the full-scale war much smaller and with little international support.
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