U.S. announces technology transfer and joint arms production with Ukraine

The Pentagon, the Ministry of Defense, and the Ministry of Strategic Industries of Ukraine have signed a declaration of intent to jointly produce weapons and exchange technical data. The document was signed at the U.S.-Ukraine Defense Industrial Base Conference in Washington, D.C.

The conference brought together about 350 industry and government representatives from the United States, Ukraine, and Europe. The participants discussed increasing arms production to support Ukraine.

The cooperation will focus on air defense systems, production of critical munitions, and repair of military equipment.

The White House emphasizes that the Pentagon and partners have provided Ukraine with technology to begin production of hybrid air defense systems under the FrankenSAM program. The project is aimed at improving outdated air defense systems using certain Western munitions.

What is known about hybrid air defense systems

In October, The New York Times reported that Ukraine and the United States had jointly developed hybrid air defense systems. The program is called FrankenSAM.

It is known that Ukraine is modernizing Soviet Buk systems using NATO-caliber anti-aircraft missiles and the latest radars.

What preceded this

On September 30, Ukraine hosted a defense industry forum attended by Ukrainian and foreign arms manufacturers. The forum was attended by at least 165 defense companies from 26 countries. As a result, it became known that almost 60 companies from 23 countries will produce weapons with Ukraine.

Yesterday, December 6, a new defense industry forum was held in Washington, D.C. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy invited U.S. defense companies to cooperate with Ukraine.

Earlier, Zelenskyy also called on the West to provide loans and licenses for weapons production.