US to Produce Ukraine’s Magura Sea Drones for the First Time

A US manufacturer is set to produce Ukraine-designed, battle-tested boat drones for the first time, as the White House bids to bolster America’s military production and expand its unmanned arsenal.

The partnership — a memorandum of understanding between Oregon-based ReconCraft and an American subsidiary of the Ukrainian-linked defense technology company UForce — will involve not only drones from the Magura family, but also software and command-and-control technologies.

“It’s the first, the most advanced contract that I’ve seen between the United States and a Ukrainian company when it comes to procurement,” said Jennifer Kavanagh, director of military analysis at the Defense Priorities think tank.

Magura drones have long been successful in attacking Russian warships, oil tankers and infrastructure in the Black Sea. The precise model of the Magura drone to be manufactured in the US remains unspecified, as details are being finalized, according to ReconCraft Co-Founder Joe Silkowski.

Though the agreement fell short of a contract, construction needed to allow domestic production of the drones is now “underway,” he said.

Still, it is too early to tell how successful the partnership will be. It is unclear whether Ukrainian technology can meet US production standards including strict supply chain regulations, according to Kavanagh.

“Ukraine relies heavily on Chinese parts for most of its defense equipment, and no Chinese parts can be in U.S. defense technology,” she said, adding that recreating the supply chain domestically or through friendly countries is likely to make production slower and costlier, eroding many of the advantages of the Ukrainian technology.

ReconCraft has a history of supplying boats to special operations forces. Sean Plankey, overseeing the partnership as the CEO of UForce USA, previously served as senior advisor on Coast Guard issues to then-Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem.