KYIV, Ukraine — President Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky are contemplating a “mega deal” that will see the US purchase battlefield-tested Ukrainian drones in change for Kyiv agreeing to purchase a swath of weapons from America.
Talking solely with The Submit on Wednesday, Zelensky revealed that his newest talks with Trump targeted on a breakthrough deal that will see the US and Ukraine prop up one another’s aerial know-how — with Kyiv providing to share all the pieces it’s realized about fashionable warfare within the three-year battle with Russia.
The deal may very well be transformative for the US navy and nationwide safety, with officers and drone specialists warning that America’s know-how lags far behind Russia and China, and American troopers are ill-equipped to make use of the UAVs or defend in opposition to the varieties of gadgets being produced by adversaries.
“The people of America need this technology, and you need to have it in your arsenal,” Zelensky advised The Submit of Ukraine’s newest drones, which have been in a position to penetrate Russia’s defenses to take out heavy bombers and hit as deep as 800 miles over the border.
“I think this is really a mega deal, a win-win, as they say,” he added.
Drone warfare has change into the standout methodology of battle within the Ukraine conflict, with Moscow and Kyiv buying and selling a whole bunch of aerial blows a day utilizing the explosives-carrying UAVs.
Specialists have lengthy warned that many countries are finding out the battle to know what a contemporary conflict would appear like — with the potential devastation highlighted by the Kremlin’s ever-escalating drone bombardments on Ukraine.
With Russia now producing its Iranian-inspired suicide drones in-house, Kyiv is ramping up its personal manufacturing of drones to combat again.
One of the spectacular assaults got here final month when 117 Ukrainian drones took out dozens of Russian bombers stationed at 4 navy bases in “Operation Spider Web.”
A month later, a Ukrainian drone flew 800 miles over the border to explode a Kremlin anti-aircraft missile plant in Izhevsk.
In Could, Ukraine celebrated the primary time a marine drone efficiently took out a Russian Su-30 fighter jet over the Black Sea.
Zelensky, who touted drones as the important thing software that has allowed his nation to combat again in opposition to the Russian invasion for greater than three years, supplied all the pieces he’s realized whereas below hearth to assist the US and NATO put together for the brand new era of conflict.
“We will be ready to share this experience with America and other European partners,” he stated, including that talks have been additionally underway with Denmark, Norway and Germany.
Specialists and officers have sounded the alarm on America’s blind spot in relation to drone know-how and warfare.
“We all know the same thing. We aren’t giving the American war fighter what they need to survive warfare today,” Trent Emeneker, undertaking supervisor of the Autonomy Portfolio on the navy’s Protection Innovation Unit, advised the New York Occasions.
“If we had to go to war tomorrow, do we have what we need? No,” he added.
The problems have been made evident in a four-day testing camp held final month in Alaska by the protection division, which noticed troopers and personal contractors repeatedly crash and fail to take down prototype drones, The Occasions reported.
A number of the drones didn’t launch altogether, and one of many drones that might fly ended up hitting the flawed goal.
The potential “mega deal” additionally comes as US Secretary of Protection Pete Hegseth issued a brand new order to “cut red tape” on US drone manufacturing.
The Pentagon memo highlighted the necessity for the US to maintain tempo as navy drone manufacturing skyrockets all over the world.
“We were brought here to rebuild the military and match capabilities to the threats of today,” he stated.
“So while our adversaries have produced millions of cheap drones before us, we were mired in bureaucratic red tape, not anymore.”
Hegseth notably made his announcement with a video that includes drones produced by Neros, a California start-up that examined and developed its know-how in Ukraine, with the corporate tapped to supply 6,000 UAVs to Kyiv this yr.
