Ukrspecsystems’ Drone Factory in UK Has Yet to Begin Operations

The plant of the Ukrainian company Ukrspecsystems in the United Kingdom, whose launch was announced in February 2026, has not yet begun production due to a ban on technology exports.

Company Director Dmytro Khasapov and his deputy, Andriy Rymaruk, discussed this in an interview with the Oboronka media outlet.

The company stated that the plant has not begun operations even despite the grand opening attended by Ukraine’s Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the United Kingdom, former Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, and British government officials.

“Yes. We were not granted permission to export the technology needed to launch this plant. We opened the site, but we haven’t received the necessary permits, so everything is at a standstill. We went through the procedures with the State Export Control Service (DSEC) and the Ministry of International Economic Cooperation and Trade (MIECT), and our applications were denied because ‘the product is used for the needs of the Armed Forces.’ We went through the whole process, submitted applications, and attended commission meetings. We weren’t allowed to present our application, and then they came out and said we’d been denied again,” the company emphasized.

According to the company, as of now, the British subsidiary consists of a facility, workstations, and a few people working on its launch.

According to Ukrspecsystems representatives, about 90% of the business is based in Ukraine. In addition, the company has facilities in Poland that manufacture products for which permits have already been obtained or products that do not require permits.

“Companies are moving assets abroad because there is a lack of funding within the country. We are working to ensure that the government listens to us and establishes a transparent mechanism for financing, contracting, and exporting that would eliminate the need to build part of the business abroad,” the company stated.

The Ukrspecsystems plant in the United Kingdom

In September 2025, it was reported that Ukrspecsystems plans to invest 200 million pounds sterling, or 250 million U.S. dollars, in a new plant in Mildenhall. However, as the company clarified, as of the end of July 2026, “not even hundreds of thousands of dollars” had been invested — “significantly less.”

In addition to the plant itself, which is planned to cover an area of 11,000 square meters, there are plans to build a testing and training center in Elmsett. Specifically, Ukrspecsystems has secured a spot at the airfield for its drones and is building a separate runway for UAVs.

The runway will allow the company to verify the operation of autopilots, sensors, and navigation systems; test UAV behavior in windy conditions, at high altitudes, or in the event of a loss of communication; and conduct tests without posing a risk to civil aviation.

According to plans, drone production at the plant in the United Kingdom was set to begin in 2026 with the major assembly of the PD-2 and Shark reconnaissance drones.

As the company stated in a February comment to Militarnyi, production was expected to reach 200 units per month, all of which were to be supplied to the Ukrainian Defense Forces.