Ukraine’s State Arms Enterprise Opens Representative Office in US

Ukroboronprom, Ukraine’s state-owned arms enterprise, opened its first foreign representative office in Washington DC on Tuesday, July 9, at the same time as the NATO Summit was taking place.

“On the sidelines of the #NATOSummit we opened the first foreign office of @ukroboronprom – in Washington, USA. Its main task is to promote joint US-Ukrainian defense projects and enhance our integration into NATO’s defense industrial base,” the Minister of Strategic Industries Alexander Kamyshin announced on social media.

Ukroboronprom is a Ukrainian arms conglomerate whose products encompass munitions, small arms, artillery, explosives, combat vehicles, warships, civil and military aerospace products, engines, missiles and others.

In 2023, Kyiv made the decision to privatize and restructure the company as the Ukrainian Defense Industry Joint Stock Company to improve efficiency and attract investment.

In December 2023, Kyiv and Washington signed a historic agreement to jointly produce weapons, through a “memorandum on co-production and technical data exchange” which will provide a path for the co-production of air defense systems, repair and technical support, and production of critical ammunition for the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Kamyshin called it an “opportunity to quickly increase production capacity,” at the time.

In June this year, German arms manufacturer Rheinmetall, in partnership with Ukroboronprom, opened its first workshop to repair and manufacture armored vehicles in Ukraine. Rheinmetall says it plans to start producing the Lynx infantry fighting vehicle (IFV) in Ukraine by the end of this year.

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