Ukroboronprom State Concern and Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute have studied different scenarios of the future of defense industry. Ukroboronprom's CEO Yuriy Husyev, said that at the International Defense Investment Forum on August 12.
According to the head of the State Concern, defense sector will go on loosing opportunities without an ecosystem that would unite science, education, production and promotion of Ukrainian arms and military hardware in foreign markets.
"We hope that Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will soon sign the draft law No.3822, which will become a powerful impetus to the revival of the defense industry, which faced heavy losses in previous years. Underfunding, lack of proper attention from the state, the impact of global crises have led to the loss of enterprises and entire sectors of industry, — said Yuri Gusev. — Today a new window of opportunity for the development of Ukrainian defense opens: Ukraine’s parliament adopted a draft law on reforming defense industry, there also exists a strategy for the development of the defense industry, supported by the National Security and Defense Council. We have to use all these opportunities to strengthen Ukraine’s army, correcting mistakes of previous years."
Research has shown that it is necessary to focus on the development of a new missile program, high-precision weapons, anti-ship missile systems, air defense and radioelectronic warfare, unmanned aerial, ground and sea systems, and so on. Generally speaking, unmanned systems are the thing of the future.
"Against latest world events and military aggression by the Russian Federation, we have strong stand to rely on — the readiness of the majority of citizens to defend country’s independence and sovereignty, a large number of soldiers who have experience of real combat operations and joint exercises with NATO troops, a large export potential of the defense industry. Currently, Ukraine is rated among TOP-20 largest world’s exporters of weapons and has all chances to enter the TOP-10. In addition, this year Ukroboronprom got listed again at the world’s TOP-100 arms companies,” the General Director of the State Concern said analyzing the prospects for development of domestic defense industry.
According to Yuriy Husyev, Ukroboronprom's enterprises have a huge potential in missile programs, UAVs, cybersecurity and cyber defense, radioelectronic warfare, armored vehicles and robotics.
“Our key task is to develop Ukraine’s defense industry, to create innovative clusters such as the Antonov cluster, which united the National Academy of Sciences, a number of universities and defense enterprises, to speed up introduction of new weapons for asymmetric countermeasures, to integrate Ukraine into the international collective security system, and to reduce the gap between the needs of our army and the capabilities of domestic science, — Yuriy Husyev summed up. — For this purpose, together with Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, we created the Institute of Advanced Defense Technologies. Besides, a master's program based on Kyiv Polytechnic Institute for the needs of the defense industry kicks off this year.
Yuriy Husyev emphasized: “The military-industrial complex is and will always be the foundation for our army, and the army is the foundation for our state. Ukraine's defense industry can and should become a driver of Ukraine's economic development, and we must promote this. The President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy insists on this.”
August 12, the Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute launched the International Defense Investment Forum, co-hosted by Ukroboronprom State Concern. The main topic of this year's event was the prospects for the development of the defense industry in Ukraine for the period up to 2030.
Sources: Ukroboronprom
