The US is set to begin manufacturing Ukrainian Magura maritime drones for the first time – the same drones that sank ships belonging to the Russian Black Sea Fleet
This was reported by The Wall Street Journal.
The agreement was signed last week at the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington. The value of the contract has not been disclosed.
According to ReconCraft co-founder Joe Silkowski, US factories in Oregon and South Carolina will initially produce hundreds of Magura drones each year, with plans to increase production to thousands of units in the future.
The Magura drones have become one of the most successful Ukrainian innovations since the start of the full-scale war. According to Ukrainian military intelligence, they have helped to strike 10 Russian warships and forced the Russian Black Sea Fleet to withdraw from most of the region’s waters.
Furthermore, Magura was the first in the world to prove that a maritime drone can shoot down aerial targets. In 2024, a Russian Mi-8 helicopter was destroyed near Cape Tarkhankut with its help, and in May 2025, a Su-30 fighter jet was shot down near Novorossiysk.
The Magura is approximately 7.5 metres long, has a range of over 560 km, and a payload capacity of up to 770 kg. The latest variants can carry missiles, launch aerial drones, carry out mine-clearing missions and search for underwater targets using sonar.
Depending on the configuration, a single drone costs up to $500,000.
Oleg Roginsky, head of Uforce, emphasised that Ukraine is sharing with its American partners not only the technology itself, but also unique combat experience in using maritime drones against a significantly stronger adversary.
The agreement on Magura marked another step towards deepening defence cooperation between Kyiv and Washington.
After several years of war, the US has begun actively studying Ukrainian drone technologies. Previously, the Pentagon had already provided American defence companies with a list of 12 Ukrainian drone systems to assess the possibility of their production or joint development.
As The Wall Street Journal notes, interest in Ukrainian solutions has surged following the recent conflict with Iran, which demonstrated just how effective low-cost autonomous systems can be compared to expensive, high-precision munitions.
The US military has already begun using maritime drones in combat operations, notably during the strike on an Iranian naval base in the Strait of Hormuz.
As a reminder, Ukraine previously unveiled an unmanned platform for delivering UAVs.
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