Why this NATO drone maker is buying made-in-Ukraine parts

A Lithuanian drone maker is eagerly turning to Ukraine for parts. Its CEO says the war has sparked battlefield innovations, that the Ukrainians are producing at scale, and that local sourcing is practical for his company’s needs.

Gediminas Guoba, the CEO of Granta Autonomy, said some of his company’s drone technology uses Ukrainian parts because they offer combat-tested capabilities. “They were adapted or they were invented on the battlefield and are available in Ukraine only,” he explained to Business Insider.

Granta Autonomy isn’t alone in working with Ukraine. A growing number of Western companies are starting to open production sites in Ukraine and working with the Ukrainian firms to learn.

But buying parts from Ukrainian manufacturers is less common.

Given the quickly changing battlefield and the fast-moving drone development race between Russia and Ukraine, Ukrainian companies are often at the forefront of new technology.

Guoba said Ukrainian firms “have experience and they have products which are needed now, not in a year or something.” He said Ukrainian companies have access to the battlefields, “they have experience of what is going on there, so it really helps.”

He said some of the parts he gets from Ukraine were invented or adapted specifically for the war and while versions of that technology may exist abroad, they aren’t built in a way that meets the needs of modern drones and the challenges of modern warfare.

One example he gave was antenna masts, which connect drones to their operators. While this kind of technology has long existed, Guoba said most models were designed for larger systems, were hard to move, or didn’t work well under tree cover — conditions where Ukrainian troops often operate to avoid detection by Russian drones.

He also pointed to explosion initiators made in Ukraine. Similar products exist elsewhere, he said, but they aren’t designed for drones or produced at the scale Ukraine is now achieving.

Some Ukrainian-made military-grade components cannot legally be exported, so Granta assembles them inside Ukraine. Similar restrictions exist in Western countries too — meaning parts from, say, Germany, can also be hard to acquire.

Granta Autonomy moved some of its processes inside the country. Granta builds most of its drones abroad, but when they need Ukrainian-made parts, those drones are finished and integrated inside Ukraine — and then stay with Ukraine’s forces.

Getting direct experience from Ukraine

Guoba said that he and his team regularly visit Ukraine because “there are really a lot of things we need to learn.” He said he visits the battlefield himself “just to understand how it really works.”

He said his motivations are to help Ukraine and to help his country develop technology that may be needed against Russia. Lithuania, a NATO member, is closely monitoring the war in Ukraine as one of the many European countries worried that Russia could expand its aggression and trigger a NATO-wide conflict.

Guoba said going to the fight is “a completely different experience being or working here and just getting feedback from operators.” The company only considers something a product if it’s been battlefield-tested in Ukraine. “Until then, it’s just like an idea; it’s a prototype,” he said.

His company supplies drones designed to work even when radio frequencies and GPS are jammed. He says that it has already delivered 1,000 of its GA-10FPV-AI quadcopters to Ukraine and signed contracts for nearly 4,000 more, along with more than 2,300 for Lithuania’s military. Ukraine also deploys Granta’s Hornet XR drone.

Many Western companies and defense officials see great value in having their products in Ukraine so they can be tested in combat. Luke Pollard, the UK’s armed forces minister, said in May: “If you are a drone company and you do not have your kit on the front line in Ukraine, you might as well give up.”

Many companies that have products in this fight receive valuable information directly from soldiers using their equipment, sometimes texting and FaceTiming with soldiers to get their feedback.

Ukrainian companies have knowledge

Ukraine’s defense industry has boomed under the intense and unrelenting pressure of Russia’s full-scale invasion, rapidly producing not just alternatives for the scarce Western systems it can’t get enough of but also new technologies tailored to the war.

Troels Lund Poulsen, the defense minister of NATO ally Denmark, told Business Insider in February that he wants Danish defense companies to work with and learn from firms in Ukraine so that they can “get some of the lessons learned from the defense companies in Ukraine back to Danish defense companies.”

“I think we have a lot to learn from Ukraine,” he said.

Guoba said that knowledge is also key for Europe as it looks to reduce its reliance on China.

He said he sees it as his “duty” to have components developed for Europe “as close to our home as possible.”

Within the West, as in Ukraine, there’s an effort to avoid buying Chinese drones and parts. China dominates that market, but the risks in using a potential adversary’s tech raise concerns. Ukraine relied heavily on Chinese drone technology early in the war, but it has been steadily working to decrease its dependence. Most drones are domestically produced, but some parts are still imported.

Guoba said there have been positive movement within Europe, such as in motor development, but “there are still limitations,” at least for now.

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