France has just one joint venture with a Ukrainian defense company. Germany has 11. Spain has five. That gap is the reason 27 Ukrainian firms, most of them drone manufacturers, traveled to Paris this week for a day of structured matchmaking with nearly 60 French defense companies, organized through the French land defense industry group GICAT.
The session was the fourth France-Ukraine defense industry meeting since July 2023, and the first held on French soil.
What Ukraine Is Offering France
Ihor Fedirko, CEO of the Ukrainian Council of Defence Industry, framed the pitch plainly: Ukraine has built unmatched drone warfare expertise after four years of active conflict, scaling production to millions of units per year and developing doctrine that no European country can replicate in a lab. France has aerospace depth, missile production, radar technology, and a defense export infrastructure that is second globally only to the United States.
The proposition is a direct exchange: Ukrainian battlefield knowledge and drone innovation for French manufacturing standards, AI capability, and integration into European procurement frameworks.
Oleksandr Kamyshin, adviser to President Zelenskyy and former minister of strategic industries, said allied governments buying co-produced equipment to donate back to Ukraine is “the fastest and the best way how we can support our front line.” He also confirmed that Ukraine plans to share battlefield datasets, including material that could train AI models, with co-production partners, with an announcement on partnerships expected April 13.
Which Companies Are Moving
Ukrainian drone maker eDrone came looking for partners with radar and tracking capability to pair with interceptor drones for protecting strategic infrastructure. MOWA Defense, which provides training and advisory services, is seeking a French partner to operate locally, with a letter of intent possible within months.
On the French side, SBG Systems, which manufactures low-cost inertial navigation systems used by Ukraine in strike drones, is exploring relocating some production to Ukraine, though Swiss machine tool export restrictions to conflict zones complicate the logistics.
GICAT’s director of export and European partnerships said at least one or two drone joint ventures between French and Ukrainian companies could be announced in the coming weeks.
Why the Gap with Germany Matters
France’s slower pace on joint ventures reflects a structural tendency to frame defense cooperation around delivering complete standalone systems rather than acting as a component or subsystem supplier. Clement Requier of GICAT acknowledged this directly, noting France should think more about being a provider of critical components, not just finished platforms.
Kamyshin referenced Rheinmetall CEO Armin Papperger’s widely criticized comments about Ukrainian “Lego drones,” noting that those drones have since sunk Russian ships and submarines. The subtext was clear: dismissiveness toward Ukraine’s defense industry is a competitive miscalculation.
The April 13 partnership announcement will indicate whether this week’s Paris meetings produced commitments or remained at the level of introductions. Ukraine’s urgency is real, and every month of production delay is a month of undersupply at the front.
