TSU: 1.7 million units of weapons were not received by the army due to the lack of state orders.

Private defense industry manufacturers did not produce more than 1.7 million units of equipment due to the lack of orders

Private manufacturers of the defense industry (OPK) of Ukraine in 2024 failed to produce more than 1.7 million units of drones and electronic warfare (EW) systems due to the lack of state orders, despite having production capacities. Such data is provided by the Technological Forces of Ukraine (TSU).

According to TSU, if state customers had continuously contracted equipment, enterprises could have produced 4,700 units a day, the total value of which is estimated at nearly $2 billion.

'The weapon counter that is missing is a public tool that shows the unused potential of the Ukrainian private defense sector. ... All surveyed companies are critically important for the country's defense capability,' said Kateryna Mykhalko, Executive Director of TSU.

Private defense companies in 2024 managed to produce over 2.7 million units of weapons, but they received only 1 million units of military equipment in orders from state procurement customers and charitable foundations. This is only 37% of the total production capacity of manufacturers.

'The lack of uninterrupted, predictable purchases by state customers prevented the production and supply of such a quantity of equipment to the army,' explains Kateryna Mykhalko, Executive Director of the Technological Forces of Ukraine.

According to TSU, private manufacturers were capable of producing: over 1.6 million FPV drones, over 72 thousand attack drones, 8.4 thousand reconnaissance drones, and 1.6 thousand long-range drones, thousands of ground robotic complexes and over 1.5 thousand EW systems. However, the lack of orders hindered their production and supply.

Moreover, as shown by the TSU counter, manufacturers lost the opportunity to receive foreign currency revenues as a result of fulfilling foreign contracts for allied countries. This could positively impact Ukraine's economy and provide additional resources for the development of defense companies and the creation of new technologies.