How weapons manufacturers are becoming technological partners of the Ukrainian army
Kyiv • UNN
Modern weapons manufacturers are working increasingly closely with the military, receiving feedback from the front and rapidly modernizing weapons. An expert explained why private defense companies are becoming technological partners of the army.
A modern defense company cannot limit itself to producing and selling weapons. A manufacturer must receive feedback from the military, analyze the use of its products, and adapt them in line with the needs of the front, UNN writes.
A defense company that does not track the subsequent use of its products, work on their modernization, or respond to comments from the military gradually loses competitiveness, military expert Oleh Zhdanov believes.
"No company should stop at the principle of ‘produced it – sold it,’ and then say, ‘I don’t care what happens next.’ If a manufacturer does not monitor the use of its products, work on modernization, or analyze the results of their operation, then it is essentially just an intermediary for making money," the expert believes.
He noted that direct contact between the manufacturer and the military is particularly important in this process. Service members are best placed to show which characteristics of weapons need to be changed or improved after their actual use.
Healthy competition in the arms market, in the expert’s view, forces manufacturers to respond to the army’s needs. If a company does not improve its products, the military has the opportunity to choose another supplier.
"Healthy competition constantly pushes the manufacturer and developer toward modernizing and improving their products. If a company does not grow, tomorrow it may lose a tender, and a service member will simply say: ‘No, we will not take this,’" Zhdanov explains.
Private companies respond to the needs of the front more quickly
The expert separately drew attention to the speed of weapons modernization. According to him, private manufacturers usually have significantly fewer bureaucratic procedures, so they can more quickly turn the experience received from the military into specific technical solutions.
"Private companies essentially do this online. They receive feedback and have fewer bureaucratic procedures for making design changes to documentation and the technological production process," Zhdanov said.
At the same time, he noted that the speed of modernization also depends on the complexity of the weapon itself. Changing an individual component in an FPV drone or a medium-range unmanned aerial vehicle can take place significantly faster than modernizing a cruise missile or an operational-tactical missile.
More complex systems require additional stages of testing, verification, and amendments to technological documentation. Therefore, even a private manufacturer cannot instantly modify a complex missile system after receiving a single comment from the front.
Why developed countries rely on the private defense industry
The experience of the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Israel demonstrates the advantages of a model in which most weapons production is in the hands of private businesses, while the state exercises control and provides the necessary conditions.
"If we look at developed countries, the state’s share in the military-industrial complex there is very small. In the United States, for example, the state has created an interesting model: production facilities may remain under state control but are transferred to private manufacturers for operation," the expert noted.
In Ukraine, a significant portion of new defense production is being created precisely by private companies, which can quickly join forces with foreign partners and establish joint production chains.
Such cooperation is particularly important for Ukraine, since the country cannot produce all components of modern weapons independently. Cooperation with foreign manufacturers makes it possible to obtain the necessary components, technologies, and equipment more quickly, while preserving Ukraine’s ability to develop and adapt the final product.