Ukraine delivers first batch of drones to United States

A Ukrainian company has delivered the country’s first batch of drones to the United States for potential use by the Pentagon, a watershed event for U.S.-Ukraine defense cooperation.

“All 2,000 of our F10 drones are now with the U.S. military,” Ukrainian defense technology company F-Drones said on X last week.

The drone is the first of its kind approved for export to the United States, the company said. Deliveries were carried out through its American partner, Ukrainian Defense Drones Tech Corp.

It plans to open its first U.S. drone assembly and manufacturing center in Holland, Ohio, by the end of 2029.

The F10 is a first-person-view, or FPV, strike drone, giving operators a live view from the aircraft as they guide it to its target. They carry explosives to strike armored vehicles, military equipment and personnel.

The F10 has proved itself in the war with Russia, recording “thousands of successful strikes and counting,” the company said.

It is participating in the Pentagon’s Drone Dominance Program, a $1 billion initiative to rapidly evaluate and arm U.S. combat units with low-cost, small one-way attack drones. The goal is to procure more than 200,000 drones for U.S. forces by 2027, according to the Pentagon.

A U.S. soldier practices with a first-person-view drone during an evaluation process that took place at Fort Benning, Ga., from February to March 2026. A Ukrainian company that finished sixth in the competition delivered the country’s first batch of drones to the U.S. for potential use by the Pentagon. (Defense Department)

F-Drones was among 25 vendors invited to compete in the program’s phase 1 evaluation, also known as the Gauntlet. For several weeks beginning in February at Fort Benning, Ga., military operators flew and evaluated the competing drones in a variety of mission scenarios.

The F10 finished sixth overall, according to the program’s leaderboard. The top 11 performers shared roughly $150 million in prototype orders.

Scoring was based on performance, military operator evaluations and production and supply chain capabilities.

A Pentagon official confirmed this week that Ukrainian Defense Drones had shipped 2,000 systems. However, they won’t be formally accepted until they’re vetted for quality, the official said.

The second phase of the competition begins later this month at Fort Carson, Colo., the Pentagon official said, noting that Ukrainian Defense Drones was scheduled to participate in the exercise.

The company is expected to provide 120 drones for the event and could receive a contract for up to 9,000 additional units, depending on the results, according to Militarnyi, a Ukrainian military news website.

Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the country has become an expert in drone warfare, leveraging innovation and rapid production of unmanned systems to offset Russia’s advantages in manpower and conventional weaponry.

Drones now account for more than three-quarters of all Russian losses, according to the Atlantic Council.

Ukraine produces an estimated 4 million drones annually, more than all NATO countries combined, the Kyiv Post reported in November.