Northrop Grumman will set up ammunition production in Ukraine.

Breaking Defense reported that Dave Bartell, director of international business for Northrop’s defense systems sector, stated this at the Eurosatory defense exhibition.

Northrop’s coproduction agreement is the first publicly acknowledged deal between a US defense prime and the Ukrainian government for a manufacturing project inside Ukraine.

“That’s our first project that’s paid for with Ukrainian dollars. We are looking to expand that into tank ammo, 155 mm, and others as we find innovative processes,” Dave Bartell, director of international business for Northrop’s defense systems sector, shared.

The acknowledgment of the agreement occurred during an exchange between Bartell and Stanley Brown, the State Department’s principal deputy assistant secretary for the bureau of political-military affairs, during Brown’s speech at the Eurosatory arms show in Paris.

Bartell did not elaborate on the coproduction plan, and Northrop declined to comment for this story.

In his remarks, Brown highlighted the State Department’s new Ukraine Defense Enterprise Program, which invests $2 billion in Ukraine’s defense industrial base and could open the door to US-Ukrainian coproduction.

Previous U.S. co-production efforts to support Ukraine’s needs have typically focused on efforts to produce U.S. weapons within NATO allies in Eastern Europe.

In recent months, however, the U.S. government has stepped up its efforts to cooperate directly with Ukraine’s defense sector.

The American military-industrial company Northrop Grumman Corporation is considered one of the world’s largest arms manufacturers and suppliers of military technology.

The company also operates in the electronics, information technology, shipbuilding, and aerospace industries.

In 2023, the United States signed a $522 million contract with Northrop Grumman to manufacture ammunition for Ukraine.