The Dutch government has announced a €110 million investment to back joint production of deep-strike unmanned aerial systems in partnership with Ukrainian defense companies as part of the Build with Ukraine program. Under this model, Ukrainian firms establish facilities inside allied countries — shielding vital defense production from strikes inside Ukraine while fostering tighter industrial and logistical ties with NATO suppliers. The result is intended to be both safer and more interoperable production that can scale quickly under allied protection and oversight. The funds are targeted at setting up co-production capacity for long-range, precision strike drones that can conduct missions against high-value targets beyond frontline zones. These long-reach systems give Ukraine options for striking critical infrastructure and adversary formations without exposing Ukrainian territory to retaliatory strikes. More than a stopgap, the model emphasizes joint engineering, shared supply chains, and adherence to Western regulatory and quality standards — enabling Ukrainian systems to be built to allied requirements and more easily supported within coalition logistics frameworks. A tangible offshoot of these shifts is Fire Point, a Ukrainian company now producing solid rocket propellant in Denmark for the Flamingo cruise missile. Relocating propellant production and other sensitive processes to partner states reduces the immediate physical risk to factories and personnel, while allowing Ukrainian firms to leverage host-country safety regimes, industrial capacity and export-compliant manufacturing. For Kyiv, moving critical nodes abroad preserves production capacity and fosters deeper industrial collaboration with Europe. For partner states like the Netherlands, hosting such work brings skilled employment and strengthens Europe’s collective defense industrial base. The Build with Ukraine approach reflects a strategic pivot toward distributed, resilient wartime production: leveraging allied territory to protect and scale Ukrainian defense manufacturing, speeding integration with NATO partners, and supporting long-term industrial ties that outlast the current conflict.
