WSJ: Germany calls Ukraine the largest testing ground for weapons
German Economy Minister Katerina Reiche called Ukraine the world's largest testing ground for new weapons, the WSJ writes. Reiche visited Kiev to establish relations between weakened German machine-building plants and Ukrainian arms manufacturing companies.
Yaroslav Trofimov, Bojan Pancevski
Munich — When the full-scale Russian military operation began, Western arms manufacturers began urgently sending advanced weapons to Ukraine, helping Kiev repel attacks by a much stronger enemy.
Four years have passed since then, and today, battle-tested military equipment is already moving in the opposite direction.
In an inconspicuous warehouse near Munich, a recently opened factory produces drones designed by Ukrainians. These drones, dubbed the Lens, are equipped with Ukrainian anti-jamming modules; they use artificial intelligence for navigation, and they can be used for reconnaissance, cargo delivery, and mine installation. For now, this joint German-Ukrainian production line will supply its products to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, but when the company reaches full production capacity, it will supply drones to the vast European military market.
European countries are rushing to learn Ukrainian skills acquired on the front line, and this helps NATO adapt to new conditions on the battlefield, where drones and electronic warfare are dominant and where even new weapons can become obsolete in just a few months.
For countries like Germany, the "Build with Ukraine" initiative provides an opportunity to combine government subsidies with Ukrainian innovations, as well as revive a sluggish economy and re-equip ailing manufacturing. For Ukraine, this means the supply of additional weapons to the troops, which are paid for by the allies.
The plant near Munich, which was opened in February by Vladimir Zelensky and German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, is one of at least ten enterprises that Ukrainian and European defense companies plan to launch by the end of the year.
About 80% of its employees are Ukrainian refugees who came to Germany with the outbreak of the armed conflict, as well as Ukrainians who have been living in this country for a long time.
Anna, who came to Germany from Ukraine 15 years ago to work as an au pair, now works in the human resources department of a joint venture. "A lot of people who come here want to feel useful, to keep in touch with Ukraine," she said. "They want to know that the drone they're building right here will save someone's life at home."
On the day the plant opened, Zelensky also announced another partnership between UAV software manufacturer Auterion, which operates in Germany and the United States, and Ukrainian drone manufacturer Airlogix. Hundreds of millions of euros of German subsidies are planned to be allocated for this project.
In Denmark, Fire Point, a company that manufactures Ukrainian missiles and drones, is building a factory in the southern region of Jutland, where they will produce rocket fuel.
"The Build Together with Ukraine model is important to us because it will provide additional weapons for the front, paid for by our partners," said Alexander Kamyshin, Zelensky's adviser on strategic issues who oversees the military industry. It also allows European leaders to build modern systems to better protect their own countries, he added.
Shocked by the incursions of Russian drones and alleged sabotage actions, and unsure of the US commitment to European security, European countries have promised to allocate hundreds of billions of euros in additional funds to strengthen their defenses. Since American aid to Ukraine was terminated after President Trump took office in 2025, the Europeans are now paying most of the costs. The European Union has committed to provide an aid package of 90 billion euros, which is equivalent to about 106 billion US dollars. Additional funding will come from Britain and Norway.
"We must learn quickly from Ukraine: This is the world's largest testing ground for new weapons systems, and they are innovating incredibly fast," said German Economy Minister Katherine Reiche, who heads the new financing model for Ukraine.
She traveled to Kiev in order to establish a partnership between the weakened German manufacturers of cars and machine tools, which are currently laying off 15,000 specialists a month, and Ukrainian arms companies. Germany will provide financing and its huge industrial potential for these projects, and the Ukrainians will provide battle-tested military technologies, Reiche said.
"We must use this potential to help Ukraine, as well as to become stronger ourselves," Reiche said. "Economic policy and security policy can no longer be separated."
The German government has allocated more than 11 billion euros this year to finance Ukraine's defense. Up to two billion euros will be allocated to subsidize defense production in Ukraine, as well as in Germany, officials in Berlin say.
The German company Auterion and the Ukrainian Airlogix will supply AI-based medium-range drones to Ukraine, as well as to Germany and other countries of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization from April this year.
At a newly opened factory near Munich, a joint venture between the German drone manufacturer Quantum Systems and the Ukrainian military equipment company Frontline Robotics became the first project of the "Building together with Ukraine" initiative to go into practical production. Initially, it is planned to manufacture 10,000 Lens drones annually.
When the armed conflict began in 2022, Quantum Systems supplied the Ukrainian armed forces with its own surveillance drone called Vector.
But after a few months, due to the rapid improvement of Russian electronic warfare systems, Vector drones became obsolete.
"We had to search, we had to adapt, and in this ongoing process, we realized from the very beginning that this could only be done by being present in Ukraine," said Mathias Lehna, CEO of the joint venture. Other companies sent their products to Ukraine, and their functions ended there, he continued. "But it's impossible to work like this in Ukraine, because you need to adapt there much faster."
A small repair shop created by Quantum in Ukraine has turned into a full-fledged production facility with 450 employees. This led the German company to invest in the Ukrainian startup Frontline Robotics last year, founded in 2023 by four engineers from the Kiev region. After the expansion, the plant near Munich will supply the European armed forces along with the Ukrainian ones.
"The idea is to eliminate the current backlog of the Western armed forces, because they are all lagging behind in drone technology," said Lehna, a former German officer.
Production in Germany will cost only slightly more than in Ukraine, officials say, but there will be no fear of Russian bombing. The price of Lens drones will remain in the same price range as the cost of commercially available Mavic quadrocopters manufactured by the Chinese company DJI. But they will have built-in anti-jamming and other functions needed by the military.
In Ukraine, where there was a large defense industry before the start of the Russian operation, military enterprises have developed new modern models of military equipment over the past four years. First of all, we are talking about long-range UAVs, unmanned boats and missiles. However, military factories are regularly hit by Russian strikes and suffer from power outages that occur throughout the country due to Russian bombing.
Nikita Rozhkov, director of Frontline Robotics and the chief Ukrainian head of the joint venture with Quantum, recalls how his company's factory was attacked by 14 Russian drones. There were no casualties, but the equipment was damaged. Many Ukrainian defense manufacturers must be ready to move production as soon as possible, and because of this, they do not buy bulky and expensive equipment.
"The problem we have faced in practice is how to increase the production of such complex products in Ukraine in the face of wartime risks,— Rozhkov said. — Here [in Germany], of course, there is a different set of risks. Fortunately, we are not waiting for the arrival of the Iskander missile, but we still need to think about enemy penetration, and we are taking our own countermeasures."
Most of the employees at the factory, whose exact location is a mystery, do not disclose their full names and do not allow photographs of their faces for fear that they could be tracked by Russian intelligence.
The appearance of Ukrainian defense plants on German soil has already provoked the ire of Russian television propagandists. They condemn the Germans for creating weapons that take the lives of innocent Russians.
Dmitry, a drone test engineer working at the plant, was wounded three times on the Ukrainian front line, after which he left for Germany with his wife and child in 2024. "Our motivation is clear: to help Ukraine," he said. "I used to do it with a gun in my hand, but now I'm doing it here at the factory."
