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BAE Systems could help local Ukrainian partners produce spare parts for light artillery within “months” as Western defense contractors consider establishing manufacturing facilities in Ukraine, its chief executive said.
Europe’s largest defense contractor announced last week that it had set up a legal entity in Ukraine and was looking for potential candidates following a meeting between Chief Executive Charles Woodburn and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. local partners.
BAE has produced most of the equipment and weapons donated by Western governments to the Ukrainian Armed Forces, including the M109 self-propelled howitzer, the M777 artillery gun and the vehicle-mounted Archer system built in Sweden.
Woodburn said Ukrainians already had an industrial base, but they were “aspiring to go down a more self-sufficient path”.
Speaking at an event at the Royal United Services Institute on Thursday, Woodburn said the country had historically made Soviet-era equipment but wanted to “shift that towards making NATO standard equipment”.
Manufacturing of spare parts for the BAE 105mm light cannon used by the Ukrainians in the war could be completed “within a few months from here,” he said, with the Ukrainians using the country’s domestic facilities, the first time the company mentioned a timeline .
BAE said production of the light gun was seen as a potential precursor to other, more complex weapons, but it would take time to decide if and when to establish a local factory.
In signs that the war is here to stay, the British firm is not the only Western defense company deepening ties with Ukraine. German tank maker Rheinmetall announced in May that it had entered into a “strategic partnership” with Kiev-owned defense contractor Ukroboronprom.
The venture’s initial focus will be on the restoration of military vehicles returning from the front – including Panther and Panther vehicles donated by the West as well as older Soviet models. An unspecified “later stage” would include manufacturing “selected Rheinmetall products,” it said at the time.
Björn Bernhard, head of Rheinmetall’s Land Systems division, told German public broadcaster NDR in August that the company had sent its first employees to Ukraine, launching the partnership. Bernhard confirmed that the ultimate goal of the cooperation is Rheinmetall’s establishment of a plant in Ukraine, adding that this “focus” could come after the war.
The Swedish government recently agreed with Ukraine to consider potential cooperation for a period of time regarding the maintenance and production of the CV90 armored vehicles produced by the Swedish enterprise BAE.
Western contractors’ interest in Ukraine is not without risks. BAE’s decision to establish a base in the country has sparked a sharp reaction from Russia, with the Kremlin warning that deploying the weapons production facility “certainly will not contribute to reducing tensions and resolving conflicts”.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said last week: “Of course, any weapons production facility, especially if these weapons are fired at us, they become the object of special attention of our military.”
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