BUILDING THE UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLE (UAV) INDUSTRY ECOSYSTEM IN UKRAINE: SCALING AND COORDINATION CHALLENGES

Abstract

The article examines Ukraine’s drone industry as a fast‑emerging defence‑tech ecosystem shaped by the full‑scale war. The purpose is to identify managerial and institutional conditions that enable rapid scaling of UAV production while sustaining quality, operational security and innovation. The study relies on qualitative desk research: content analysis of open analytical reports and official communications, comparative synthesis of industry cases, and ecosystem mapping of key actors and handoffs in the value proposition “field demand - design - testing - serial production - delivery - combat feedback - upgrade”. The results indicate that the sector grows through hundreds of manufacturers, accelerated prototyping and short learning loops with frontline units; ecosystem orchestrators and digital coordination platforms reduce transaction costs, help match unit needs with suppliers, and shorten procurement‑to‑deployment cycles. However, scaling creates new coordination problems: fragmented standards, limited interoperability, uneven access to predictable contracts, and volatility in component supply and prices. Security threats to production sites and data leakage risks increase as the market expands, while the R&D funding gap may constrain next‑generation capabilities such as EW resilience, navigation under GNSS denial, and modular payload integration. The article argues that industrial policy should move from ad‑hoc support toward a coherent digital strategy: standardised technical requirements and testing protocols, secure data exchange and traceability across supply chains, digital certification of batches, protected IP and export‑control compliant pathways, and investments into talent pipelines, university‑industry labs and shared testing infrastructure. The findings can be applied by government bodies, procurement agencies, manufacturers, investors and universities to design ecosystem governance mechanisms, prioritise localisation projects, and build a sustainable innovation base for Ukraine’s UAV sector and its post‑war competitive positioning.