The potential deal was made possible by the U.S. Department of State’s approval of a Foreign Military Sale to Italy of 5,031 BAE Systems Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System (APKWS) II guidance systems.

The APKWS, which can be inserted between the warhead of an unguided missile and its motor, features four fold-out wings which each carry a laser seeker, turning a missile that costs less than €100,000 ($117,000) into a guided weapon.

The solution would allow the Italian Air Force to avoid firing missiles like the AMRAAM – which costs ten times that – to destroy cheaply produced drones.

“The proposed sale will improve Italy’s capability to meet current and future threats by strengthening its homeland defense and serving as a deterrent to regional threats,” the State Department said.

The FMS approval also covers launchers, warheads and rocket motors, as well as technical support, taking the potential deal to $364 million, the State Department added.

Sources in Italy told Defense News no contract had been signed and the technology was still being evaluated. The likely recipient of the APKWS would be Italy’s Eurofighter jet, which is already guarding Europe’s borders against drone incursions.

This month, an Italian Eurofighter taking part in NATO air policing mission in the Baltics shot down an unidentified drone which flew into Latvian airspace.

In May, the Royal Air Force announced it was already using the system on its Eurofighters after a rapid acquisition which saw testing and deployment completed in two months.

“The Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System (APKWS) gives RAF pilots a highly accurate option to destroy aerial targets and allows them to engage drones at a fraction of the cost of traditional air-to-air missiles,” the RAF said at the time.

The companies signed a letter of intent on Sunday to combine General Cherry’s expertise in small drones and Patria’s unmanned-technology expertise and defense-industry experience, which will allow them to jointly develop unmanned vehicles for Western European defense needs, they said in a statement on Sunday.

The announcement is part of a broader wave of European defense-industrial cooperation with Ukrainian drone makers. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in December announced plans to produce various Ukrainian drones in Germany, while Ukrainian UAV makers including Skyeton and Ukrspecsystems are partnering or investing in the United Kingdom to produce drones there.

“Unmanned defense systems are central to the future of defenses,” said Mikko Leino, Patria’s executive vice president for defense and weapon systems, in the statement. “The partnership with General Cherry further reinforces Patria’s expertise in unmanned defence systems and drone development.”

As part of the collaboration, Patria plans to start drone production in Finland, which would help build up Europe’s defense capabilities and support the Finnish firm’s aim to be an innovative product developer, the company said in a statement on Sunday.

“Our unique battlefield experience, combined with Patria’s technological capabilities, can help drive a fundamental transformation of the European and global security architecture,” said Stanislav Hryshyn, co-founder of General Cherry, in the statement.

Patria didn’t immediately respond to phone calls and emailed questions about the cooperation plans, including whether the Finnish company will produce existing General Cherry drone models or when Finnish production could start.

General Cherry produces a range of drones, including one-way FPV strike drones and interceptor drones, and the company says its products are in use with more than 200 military units across the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Burnham will be in Ukraine to co-chair a meeting of the so-called Coalition of the Willing, a group of countries backing Ukraine, on Monday, when he is also due to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

He is set to announce that Britain has agreed to allow European missile manufacturer MBDA to release classified information on British-made components used in the SCALP long-range cruise missile, according to his office.

That will help enable France and Ukraine to establish local assembly lines for the missile, which shares British and French technology, according to Downing Street.

“Ukraine’s security is our security,” Burnham said in a statement, adding that Britain would stand by Ukraine “for as long as it takes.”

Britain has been one of Ukraine’s strongest supporters since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, providing military support, economic aid and diplomatic backing.

Britain was the first country to announce plans to supply Ukraine with Western-made battle tanks and long-range cruise missiles following the invasion and has pledged more than £25 billion ($34 billion) so far in military and civilian support.

REASSURANCE OF UK SUPPORT

Moscow warned London last week of “consequences” for supplying drones to Kyiv, accusing Britain of deepening its involvement in the war following a report ​that British-made drones had been used for long-range strikes against Russia ​for the first time.

Burnham is expected to use his visit to reassure Ukraine and its allies that Britain would continue to play a leading role in efforts to strengthen Ukraine’s security under his government.

The push to expand Ukraine’s domestic missile production comes as Ukraine increasingly relies on long-range drones and strike weapons to target Russian oil refineries and logistics facilities far behind the front lines.

The visit comes weeks after Zelenskyy traveled to Britain in late July as Burnham’s first international guest, following the Labour leader’s election as prime minister a week earlier.

The United States, which has been at war with Iran since Feb. 28, requested their temporary deployment under an agreement governing the joint use of military facilities.

Iran said at the time that their deployment would constitute complicity in “aggression and war crimes”, a charge that Sofia dismissed.

The two U.S. Air Force KC-135 planes left Bulgaria on Friday, Defense Minister Dimitar Stoyanov told reporters.

The U.S. authorities could not be immediately reached for comment.

The deployment of the aircraft, approved by Bulgaria’s parliament on July 22, led to protests by nearby residents who feared the planes would be attacked by Iranian missiles and drones.

Stoyanov said all the aircraft’s flights during their temporary deployment had been training missions over allied countries and that Bulgaria had “no information about direct threats to our national security.”

“We are working in full coordination with the U.S. government and had prior information, which is why all our decisions were well-founded,” he said.

India’s Defense Ministry told parliament this month it had “initiated efforts in a concerted manner to co-join” the effort.

The ministry stated earlier this year that India would try to join one of the two consortia working on a new generation fighter aircraft – at that time one involved France, Germany and Spain. The second includes the UK, Italy and Japan.

In June, however, France and Germany abandoned their joint effort to develop the landmark combat fighter at the heart of the program, opening the door for Paris to collaborate with a new partner.

India is exploring a potential partnership with France at a time when New Delhi lags behind in key fighter jet technologies, particularly engine development, and is also trying to beef up the fleet strength of its air force.

At the moment, India’s most advanced fighter jets are its 4.5-generation French Rafales.

The country is also pursuing a domestic project to develop a multirole fifth-generation fighter, with a prototype flight targeted for later this decade.

However sixth-generation fighters are expected to incorporate technologies that go beyond the stealth and advanced radar capabilities of fifth-generation aircraft. The futuristic jets center on a core fighter jet supported by drones and powered by what has been described as a “combat cloud.”

India’s objective in exploring a partnership with France, analysts say, is to gain access to advanced capabilities needed to develop the next generation of combat aircraft.

“India still has to transition to fifth-generation technologies so it would be good to make a parallel start on a sixth generation program to bridge the serious gap we face. That is why it is a good idea to get in with a grouping or a consortia working on the next generation fighter,” retired Air Marshal Anil Chopra told Defense News. “And some of the sixth-generation technologies that we may acquire might also be helpful as we develop our fifth generation program.”

In a report presented in Parliament on Aug. 9, a parliamentary committee which scrutinizes defense policies recommended that the defense ministry “step forward the planning process” for the development and acquisition of sixth-generation (6G) aircraft to enhance India’s air domain capabilities.

Analysts say China’s rapid air modernization is a major strategic consideration for India as it initiates efforts to join a development program for a next-generation jet.

“It has been a perpetual problem in Indian defense policy that India tends to lag almost one or two cycles behind what others are doing. But that space is no longer available given how rapidly air power is evolving and how quickly China is developing its capabilities,” according to Harsh Pant, the vice president of studies at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi.

Analysts say discussions with France are likely to focus on issues such as a role in industrial participation, design and development, and access to intellectual property.

“At the moment India is engaged in exploratory discussions with France. We will want industrial workshare, but engine and radar technologies will have to come from French companies. So talks will center on what technology will be offered to India. France seems to be more open to sharing technology,” said Air Marshal Chopra.

India has a longstanding defense relationship with France, particularly in the aerospace sector. Besides the Rafales already deployed by the Indian Air Force, the two countries are presently engaged in negotiations for 114 more Rafale fighters for New Delhi, whose purchase India has approved.

“India needs a trusted partner as it tries to secure a place in the next generation technology cycle before it becomes too difficult or too expensive to catch up, and France is a good fit. It has been willing to engage in defense cooperation with New Delhi without the same political lens or considerations that some other suppliers have,” said Pant.

Dassault Aviation CEO Eric Trappier has repeatedly said that France has the know-how and the technology to independently develop a next-generation fighter jet.

The hiccup is that France’s public finances are under significant strain, with the country having one of the European Union’s highest debt burdens and largest budget deficits, complicating the funding of a future fighter project that may cost tens of billions of euros.

France is currently the only country in Western Europe with a fully sovereign, end-to-end modern fighter ecosystem, centered around the domestically developed Rafale. The fighter is built by Dassault Aviation, with avionics and radar supplied by Thales, an after-burning turbofan engine developed by Safran, and a range of missiles supplied by MBDA.

Rudy Ruitenberg in Paris contributed to this report.

Russia has been ramping up both its barrages and the production lines feeding them: it launched a record 351 missiles at Ukraine in July, including 153 cruise and 198 ballistic and hypersonic, while its factories ran at 110% to 120% of monthly production targets – already reaching their annual production goals for Zircon and Oniks missiles by early August, according to Ukraine’s Defence Intelligence.

“The enemy currently has the capability to launch more than 70 (77) missiles of various types from different launch systems, ships and aircraft,” Maj. Robert “Magyar” Brovdi wrote in an Aug. 10 Telegram post. “The enemy is working to increase the size of a single simultaneous salvo to as many as 200 missiles.”

“Even if they only manage half of that, it will all be flying at us,” Brovdi told the Associated Press the same day.

A mixed barrage struck Kyiv shortly after midnight local time on Thursday, with more than a dozen explosions heard across the capital – a fraction of the salvo Brovdi says Moscow is building toward.

The strike killed at least 15 people and injured dozens across the capital alone, damaging several residential buildings, a school, a children’s hospital and a kindergarten, according to Kyiv officials.

Magyar’s warning is that the country would likely face even higher numbers of dead in a combined attack of hundreds of Russian ballistic and cruise missiles.

Ukraine’s air defense network can intercept most drones and cruise missiles with cheaper systems, but Patriot and a handful of similar European systems are among the few systems capable of reliably intercepting ballistic and hypersonic missiles. Those interceptor stocks are at their lowest levels in years.

Ukraine fields two and a half times fewer interceptors than it did in 2025 while Russia fires twice as many ballistic missiles a month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told CNN on Aug. 12, with allied deliveries this year running at one-third of last year’s levels.

“Patriot systems capable of shooting down ballistic missiles are essentially on a ‘starvation ration,’” Air Force spokesperson Yurii Ihnat said in April after Russia fired more than 700 missiles over the winter, per Censor.NET.

The shortage runs so deep that the Air Force decided in early August to stop publishing attack tallies for ballistic missile intercepts because of the negative impact on morale.

“I understand that everyone already knows everything and sees that the topic is very sensitive, especially for the capital,” Ihnat wrote in an Aug. 13 Facebook post.

“But when we put an official message – 28/0 (ballistic missiles intercepted) the result is that all our media write ‘The Air Force did not shoot down a single missile,’ and amplify it throughout the country. Meanwhile, enemy media will only copy all this and replicate it for themselves, giving a standing ovation!”

The problem for Kyiv is that anti-ballistic interceptors remain the only immediate answer to the ballistic-missile threat, and they have been in short supply worldwide since the Iran war began.

The United States has burned through roughly two-thirds of its combined Patriot and THAAD stockpile since that war started, from more than 2,700 missiles to fewer than 1,000 by late July, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Each PAC-3 replacement costs roughly $3.9 million and takes up to two years to build.

“There are no good alternatives to Patriot and THAAD for ballistic missile defense,” the center’s experts concluded.

Ukraine is working on several tracks to resolve the antiballistics shortage, negotiating Patriot co-production agreements with Raytheon and Lockheed Martin, though both makers have begun hedging, and backing Freyja, a cheaper European interceptor program led by Ukraine’s Fire Point.

Experts put licensed Patriot production 24 to 30 months away, and Freyja’s first intercept is not planned until the end of 2027, leaving interceptors from allied stockpiles as Kyiv’s only immediate answer to protecting its cities from increasingly large missile attacks.

“If [the United States] can sell us 5%, we will go through the winter and save people’s lives,” Zelenskyy said last week. “If they can sell us 10%, we will destroy all the Russians’ ballistic missiles. I have 1%.”

The requested appropriation funds include 250 million francs earmarked for down payments on short-range ground-based air defense systems and 650 million francs for medium-range systems, as well as 60 million francs for a medium-range radar and 10 million for drone-counter systems, the Swiss federal council said in a statement on Wednesday.

The advance payments are intended to ensure deliveries take place on time and allow training of operational procedures to begin, the government said. Switzerland plans to spend 1 billion francs on Diehl’s IRIS-T SLM for medium-range air defense as well as 800 million francs to buy the Oerlikon Skynex short-range system from Rheinmetall, according to the 2026 defense-equipment program.

“Hybrid operations and attacks from a distance pose the most likely threats to Switzerland,” the federal council said. “At the same time, the armed forces lack the necessary resources to adequately protect Switzerland from aerial threats.”

The tight international arms markets with “sharply” higher demand means production capacities are fully booked for years to come, with delivery times lengthening, according to the government. Arms makers also increasingly demand “substantial” down payments, and failure to meet those demands could delay urgent procurements by several years, the government said.

Switzerland said in March the country was considering buying a second long-range air-defense system, as delivery of previously ordered Patriot systems from the United States looked to be delayed by four to five years. The country said in June it would start negotiations with French, Israeli and South Korean manufacturers.

The French-Italian SAMP/T NG system produced by Eurosam and armed with MBDA’s Aster air-defense interceptor is considered the favorite for the second long-range system, SRF Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen reported in June.

With the supplementary appropriation, the council “aims to secure production capacity and delivery dates at an early stage for the procurements approved” in the 2026 armed forces budget. The council said the financing is possible thanks to an improved fiscal outlook resulting from higher income tax revenues.

The council said it will be able to proceed with the advance payments as soon as parliament has made its decision, probably during the upcoming fall session.

The government additionally plans to invest 100 million francs in coming years to strengthen security at more than 60 military sites, including improved fencing, video surveillance, electronic access controls, and secure rooms.

The evolving security situation means “it is urgent to implement these measures quickly,” by early 2029 at the latest, and a decision next year would be too late to achieve that goal, the council said.

Japan’s Ground Self-Defense Forces are currently testing Helsing’s HX-2 strike drone, as Tokyo looks to modernize its military and counter an increasingly assertive China. The field tests will run until the end of September, the spokesperson said.

Helsing struck an “initial agreement” for the Japanese government to use its systems earlier this year, a spokesperson for the Munich-based company said, adding that the move was made possible by an unnamed “local brokerage partner.”

Japan’s Ground Self-Defence Forces did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Rakuten’s involvement with Helsing was first reported by Japan’s Nikkei newspaper. While the Tokyo-based conglomerate has limited defense experience, it is aiming to help more startups break into Japan’s defense industry.

“Encouraging greater participation for startups in Japan’s defense industry presents an important opportunity to strengthen the country’s defense capabilities,” Hideaki Mukai, chief of staff to Rakuten’s CEO, said in a statement to Reuters. “Startups often face significant structural barriers, including complex procurement systems, difficulties communicating with government agencies and challenging procurement cycles.

“Rakuten hopes to help bridge these gaps by leveraging our experience and capabilities to connect startups and cutting-edge technologies with the needs of government agencies, further driving innovation and development in Japan’s defense industry.”

GLOBAL DEFENSE FIRMS EYE JAPAN

A military spending splurge by Japan, along with its easing of arms-export rules earlier this year, has sparked strong interest from overseas defense firms looking for local partners to break into a potentially lucrative new market.

Rakuten helped U.S.-listed Ukrainian drone software maker Swarmer organize a demonstration of its technology for a unit of Japan’s military earlier this year, Reuters previously reported.

The late-April test involved using its AI software to coordinate a swarm of drones ​in a seek-and-hit mission in Japan.

Rakuten’s billionaire founder Hiroshi “Mickey” Mikitani has been among Japan’s most vocal supporters of Ukraine, and his firm has also helped other Ukrainian defense firms exhibit their products at arms fairs in Japan.

Founded in 2021, Helsing initially focused on artificial intelligence software ​designed to help analyze battlefield data ​before ⁠expanding into autonomous strike drones, underwater surveillance systems and military aircraft applications.

It has secured contracts ⁠with ​European governments and defense ​companies, while supplying drones for Ukraine backed by German government ​funding. The Munich-based firm raised $1.8 billion in a funding round in July, cementing its position as the continent’s best-funded defense technology startup.

The CIA has worked closely with Ukraine’s intelligence services since Russia’s 2014 invasion, growing a partnership built on assistance and training into a two-way exchange of intelligence, according to Forbes. However, the relationship nearly collapsed in February 2025, when a contentious Oval Office meeting between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy ended with Washington temporarily cutting off the flow of intelligence and weapons to Kyiv.

But Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., the Senate Intelligence Committee’s ranking member, said this month that the two countries have moved past previous hurdles and returned to a strong intelligence partnership.

“I don’t want to get into any specifics, but it has improved,” Warner told Politico.

The CIA has spent more than a decade and millions of dollars training and equipping Ukrainian intelligence officers, building around a dozen secret forward-operating bases along the Russian border, ABC News reported in January 2025, citing former U.S. officials.

The senator said the current arrangement has helped Kyiv gain an edge, with long-range drones and missiles now hitting targets far inside Russia.

While American weapons deliveries have taken the spotlight in what Washington gives Ukraine, intelligence is the one U.S. asset Kyiv cannot replace, especially for the long-range strikes now making headlines.

That intelligence reaches directly into the strike campaign, including “the targeting packages for strikes on Russian-troop positions in Ukraine and on energy infrastructure inside Russia,” The Atlantic reported, citing American and Ukrainian sources.

Those sources called intelligence “the one thing the United States still provides free of charge,” crediting CIA Director John Ratcliffe with keeping it that way.

Zelenskyy seems to have risen in Trump’s estimation as Ukraine increasingly fights on its own terms, redefining modern warfare by crafting new tech and strategies, clawing back territory and taking the war deep into Russia — leaving Kyiv looking less dependent and more like an ally with something to trade.

“Trump doesn’t like losers,” one Western intelligence official told the outlet.

Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, another intelligence committee member, and Roger Wicker, R-Miss., who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee, told Politico they see a direct connection between the White House’s view of Ukraine’s battlefield successes and Kyiv’s access to intelligence.

“It sure seems like that,” Cornyn said. “Everybody loves a winner and looks like Ukraine has turned the tide.”

The strengthening relationship between Washington and Kyiv is apparent on multiple fronts.

Trump’s negotiators to end the war, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, plan to head to Ukraine for the first time later this month, a trip that coincides with the country’s independence celebrations, according to Radio Free Europe.

The intel trade is going both ways, with Zelenskyy stating publicly as early as March that Kyiv had proof of Moscow passing intelligence to Iran that he later promised to put in front of Trump.

“We have irrefutable evidence that the Russians continue to provide intelligence to the Iranian regime,” Zelenskyy wrote on X. “Russia is using its own signals intelligence and electronic intelligence capabilities, as well as part of the data obtained through cooperation with partners in the Middle East.”

American officials are backpedaling too. Trump on July 20 told the Financial Times that the U.S. has to be “a little bit careful of who we license to.” Despite that, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Saturday posted on X that the two sides have “now reached an agreement.”

The glacial progress may reflect American defense giants’ fear that Kyiv could become a defense industry competitor — rather than posing risk to technology or intellectual property — a Republican official on Capitol Hill told The Atlantic.

“Their real worry is that the Ukrainians will find a way to improve the Patriot and then produce them at scale faster and for much less money than what the existing production lines in the U.S. could do,” the official said, adding that the companies will publicly frame their concerns around “IP theft and tech transfer” instead.

Ukraine’s weapons industry, honed by nearly five years of Russia’s full-scale invasion, has been booming since the U.S.-Israel war with Iran began in the spring. The conflict with Iran has drained an estimated two-thirds of America’s pre-war Patriot interceptor inventory, sparking discussion about inventory and strategy.

Some defense partners are eager to work with Ukraine, a country with rare recent experience fighting a large-scale land war, and have shown strong interest in collaborating with Kyiv to develop and field cheaper, faster-to-produce alternatives to million-dollar weapons.

The race toward competition is problematic for the defense giants, the official said — not because Ukraine might steal the Patriot — but because the country’s partners might outbuild it, cutting into the current monopoly on antiballistic capabilities and profits.

Trump first pledged the license at the July NATO summit in Ankara, promising Ukraine permission to produce Patriot missiles for the first time.

“We’re going to give a license to you to make Patriots. That’s pretty cool. This way, you can’t complain that we’re not giving ‘em enough,” Trump said, adding that the companies had not yet been consulted on the plan.

Zelenskyy said the next day that the question had been “resolved politically,” telling reporters that technical teams needed to start work “without delay, so that we can get licenses very quickly and start production in Ukraine as soon as possible.”

Five days after Trump’s pledge, Ukraine, nine European countries and defense heavyweights including Eurosam, Leonardo, Thales and Saab launched a coalition in Paris to field Freyja, an entirely new antiballistic system built around a Ukrainian interceptor priced at roughly one-fifth of a Patriot round.

A week after that, Lockheed unveiled its own cheaper, faster-to-produce Patriot missile at the Farnborough International Airshow, advertising the PAC-3 ACE at roughly $2 million a round – less than half the price of the round Ukraine fires at Russian ballistic missiles today.

The Patriot line rarely moves that fast. Its current top round, the PAC-3 MSE, was first accepted by the U.S. Army in 2015 and took until 2018 to reach full-rate production, per the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance.

On July 21, one day after the ACE debut, Tim Cahill, president of Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control, described production talks with Ukraine as simply “early,” telling reporters the company will “support the US Army and the [Trump] administration on what they want to go do,” according to Breaking Defense.

Raytheon’s process “has just started,” with the company working with the U.S. government “to determine what is feasible and what is best for Ukraine,” its president of land and air defense systems, Tom Laliberty, said at the same show.

Two days later, Zelenskyy wrote in a post on X that he was “grateful for the company’s readiness to take our partnership to an even higher level, where Ukraine would co-produce, together with Raytheon, some of the most vital air defense assets – Patriot interceptors,” after meeting representatives of the group.

But when Zelenskyy asked Trump for “several hundred” interceptors at a July 28 Oval Office meeting, the president refused, citing America’s shrunken stocks, The Atlantic reported.

Three days later, Trump reversed course on the license entirely.

“We have not agreed to that,” he said at a Camp David Cabinet meeting. “We’re talking about it, but it’s a hard thing to give away that kind of technology.”

Then, U.S. NATO Ambassador Matthew Whitaker dampened expectations further on Aug. 3, telling Fox News that “we do not allow anybody but US manufacturers to make those in the United States,” adding that a long-term production agreement “will not be concluded before this winter,” per Euronews.

The deal’s current status is unclear.

“The decision has been made,” Zelenskyy said during an interview on Ukrainian television over the weekend, according to United24. “It was made by the President of the United States and other important American government institutions.”

American officials have yet to respond to Zelenskyy’s latest comments.