Ukraine has agreed to export drones to the United States to participate in the Pentagon's Drone Dominance program, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Wednesday.
The agreement comes as Kyiv and Washington have been negotiating a wider drone deal for Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles, whose success in the war against Russia has driven high demand from other countries to learn from their experience and purchase models for testing.
Six Ukrainian companies have received permission to export about 100 drones each, the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
There was no immediate official comment from Kyiv or Washington on the matter.
According to local Ukrainian news website UA News, Ukrainian land, air and maritime autonomous platforms will be shared with the DoD to evaluate their capabilities and carry out tests that are expected to play a role in influencing the Pentagon's future procurement requirements.
Ukraine has already signed drone deals with a number of European and Middle Eastern states. Kyiv has also moved to loosen wartime restrictions on its arms exports, although the government still retains a tight hold on what is sent abroad.
Drone Dominance is a billion-dollar competition run by the US Department of Defense, in which small attack drones from dozens of manufacturers participate in challenges designed to simulate battlefield adversity. The first round of that competition was won by a craft jointly produced by Ukrainian drone giant Skyfall and British company Skycutter.
In December, the DoD announced that the Drone Dominance program would purchase $1 billion worth of small lethal drones over the next two years.
With hundreds of drone companies in the United States, the program is designed to test whether the ecosystem can manufacture low-cost systems at scale and quickly enough to meet the demand of the US military.
Jerusalem Post staff contributed to this report