Germany is paying for 50,000 attack drones bound for Ukraine, a source familiar with the deal told Reuters on July 12. It is one of the largest drone purchases a Western government has made for Kyiv.
The order is for Shrike first-person-view drones built by the Ukrainian manufacturer SkyFall. Each carries software from the American defence technology firm Auterion, designed to track a moving target on its own and hit it in the last seconds of flight.
Auterion’s chief executive, Lorenz Meier, confirmed the size of the contract. He put its value at about €90 million ($103 million) and said a European country was footing the bill. Some of the drones have already reached Ukraine’s government, Meier said, and the rest are due to ship this year.
SkyFall acknowledged Germany’s involvement but would not discuss details. Germany’s Defence Ministry declined to comment, citing operational security. Ukraine’s Defence Ministry also said nothing.
A cheap drone with a growing name
The Shrike has been in use in Ukraine since 2023. Lately it has drawn attention abroad. A version called the Shrike 10-F, which SkyFall makes with the British company Skycutter, topped the leaderboard in the first round of a Pentagon-run competition. That contest is part of a $1.1 billion programme to buy hundreds of thousands of one-way attack drones. Auterion said its software appears in several of the entries.
The German order is only part of what Auterion is handling. Meier said the company is helping supply 100,000 drones to Ukraine this year, working with different hardware makers and money from several Western governments. A $50 million Pentagon contract for 33,000 of them has already been delivered, he said.
Britain said last month it would send 150,000 drones to Ukraine this year, part of a £752 million ($1.01 billion) funding package.
The war with Russia is now more than four years old. Ukraine makes millions of drones a year, and its forces carry out thousands of drone strikes every day.
