Germany to finance purchase of 50,000 strike drones for Ukraine – Reuters

According to Ukrinform, Reuters reported this in an article, citing its own source.

The order is said to be one of the largest known drone purchases for Kyiv by a Western government.

The order concerns Shrike loitering munitions made by Ukrainian drone manufacturer SkyFall and equipped with software from U.S. defense-tech company Auterion, which enables autonomous tracking and striking of moving targets in the final stage of flight.

Ukraine has relied heavily on the effectiveness of unmanned systems throughout more than four years of war against Russia, and it produces millions of drones annually, as Ukrainian forces carry out thousands of drone strikes every day.

Auterion CEO Lorenz Meier confirmed that the contract is worth about 90 million euros and that it is being financed by a European country. According to him, part of the drones have already been delivered to the Ukrainian government, while the rest are to be sent later this year.

SkyFall confirmed Germany’s involvement in the project but said the company could not comment on the details of the purchase.

The defense ministries of Ukraine and Germany declined to comment on the information.

Shrike, a low-cost drone used in Ukraine since 2023, has recently gained popularity abroad.

A version called Shrike 10-F, produced by SkyFall together with the British company Skycutter, recently topped the leaderboard in the first round of a Pentagon-run competition as part of a $1.1 billion initiative to purchase hundreds of thousands of one-way attack drones.

Meier said that Auterion is helping supply Ukraine with a total of 100,000 drones this year in partnership with various hardware manufacturers funded by Western countries.

This also includes a $50 million Pentagon contract for the supply of 33,000 drones, which, he said, have already been delivered to Ukraine.

As Ukrinform reported, the U.S. Army software factory developed Shrike software that uses artificial intelligence to reduce the time needed to identify and strike a target from 15 minutes to 1 minute.