Agreement between ’Ukrainian Armoured Vehicles’ and MBDA sets unique precedent, - NAUDI
The partnership between ‘Ukrainian Armoured Vehicles’ and the European missile manufacturer MBDA could serve as a new model for cooperation between Ukrainian manufacturers and Europe’s leading defence companies.
This was stated by Serhii Vysotskyi, deputy chairman of NAUDI, during a broadcast on Apostrophe TV, whilst commenting on the conclusion of an agreement between the companies, according to Censor.NET.
"This is a strategic partnership agreement. For the Ukrainian defence sector, this kind of in-depth collaboration between a major European defence corporation and a Ukrainian defence company is, I would say, a unique precedent," emphasised Vysotskyi.
"This primarily involves a large package of joint programmes. I cannot name any specific projects at this stage, as this involves security risks. But I can say that there will be some very interesting programmes; we will be jointly manufacturing more of the weapons that both we and, at the same time, the Europeans need," he said.
The agreements between "Ukrainian Armoured Vehicles" and MBDA, which the parties announced last week, provide for cooperation in the field of long-range weaponry and counter-UAV measures. The parties plan to exchange technologies, implement joint production programmes and develop innovative solutions in the areas of Deep Strike and C-UAS, with a view to establishing a joint venture.
MBDA is one of Europe’s leading manufacturers of missile systems and is involved in the production of Taurus cruise missiles. Meanwhile, ‘Ukrainian Armoured Vehicles’ has considerable experience in developing and rapidly adapting weapon systems to the demands of modern warfare.
According to Vysotskyi, combining Ukrainian combat experience and expertise in scaling up production with European technologies has the potential to significantly strengthen the defence capabilities of both sides.
"As a country and as an industry, we have experience in scaling up, and an understanding of how to rapidly set up production and adapt it to the needs of the front line. We need to combine this experience we have with our partners’ technologies," he said.
As part of the partnership, the parties also plan to implement a number of major production programmes.
