Ukraine ready to sign landmark drone defense deal with U.S., sources say

Kyiv — Ukraine is ready to sign a landmark drone defense deal with the United States, according to three sources familiar with the matter.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is prepared to sign the deal on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly this week in New York City, but the sources said the deal may instead be finalized at a later date, when the U.S. is ready to sign.

Over the past year, the Department of Defense and its Ukrainian counterpart have developed a framework that would allow the two countries' militaries to expand testing and production of Ukrainian defense technology in the U.S.

The importance of expanding partnerships with Ukraine's defense industry has become increasingly clear to the U.S. and its allies throughout the war with Iran. During the first days of the war, Iran began targeting American military installations across the Middle East with Shahed one-way attack drones — the same type of drones Russia has used to attack Ukraine's cities . As the U.S. and the Gulf states initially lacked cost-effective means to intercept the drones, Kyiv sent drone interceptors and pilots to help.

Ukraine has since signed defense agreements with Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, among other countries. The agreements match foreign financing with Ukraine's burgeoning defense manufacturing industry. Zelenskyy has said Ukraine aims to make 10 million drones this year. By comparison, the U.S. Army acquired roughly 50,000 in 2025, according to former Army Secretary Dan Driscoll.

But experts say the most important lesson for the U.S. and its allies is that Ukraine's advantage lies not only in the drones themselves, but in the software, operators and teams constantly adapting them.

"There is a sort of a misconception that you just buy the tech and somehow it's going to work. Really what the West needs to start understanding better is that it's not just about having the tech. It's about how the tech is used. And this is where Ukraine's knowledge, skills, experience really need to be transmitted along with it," Deborah Fairlamb, founding partner of Green Flag Ventures, an American venture capital firm that invests in Ukrainian defense technology, told CBS News. "It's not just like it's a rifle that you just point and shoot."

Previously unreported details from the opening days of the Iran war illustrate that challenge.

In March, as Iran began to retaliate against joint U.S.-Israeli strikes, then-Army Secretary Driscoll called Eric Schmidt , the former CEO of Google, who has since founded Perennial Autonomy, a U.S. drone company active in Ukraine. Perennial Autonomy manufactures an interceptor drone known as Merops, which is among the most effective means of countering the Iranian-designed Shahed drones Russia uses against Ukraine. Driscoll asked Schmidt to supply 13,000 Merops interceptor drones and 10,000 Bumblebee reconnaissance and strike drones to the Middle East.

Schmidt agreed and the drones were sent to the U.S. military within days, but it would take weeks before they were operational because of Ukrainian components that arrived late, according to multiple sources familiar with the shipments.