A drone company backed by Erik Prince— the Blackwater founder and an ally to President Trump—is buying one of Ukraine’s leading makers of battlefield robots, an early sign of consolidation across the country’s sprawling drone industry.
CEO of Swarmer. “So they are looking for partners that can give them resources and give them reach.
“From the perspective of Ukrainian companies, most of them can’t develop the infrastructure necessary to sell worldwide,” said Alex Fink, the U.S. Prince, Swarmer’s chairman, said in an interview the company wants to continue to acquire and partner with defense and security technology companies whose products are battlefield tested. “The barrier to entry for starting a drone company is low as 1,500 combat commands can buy whatever they think works best for them,” said Perry Boyle, CEO of MITS Capital.
Separately, companies like Swarmer and some of those owned by MITS, are incorporating abroad. Its software allows groups of drones to decide which one strikes first and adapt if, for instance, one runs out of battery. The software, which was first deployed in April 2024, has now completed more than 100,000 combat missions, the company said. Ratel Robotics, which produced street lighting before the war, said it won orders for around 37% of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense budget for unmanned ground vehicles in the first four months of this year. Unmanned ground vehicles have become a vital part of Ukraine’s war efforts, including being used in 112,000 logistics and evacuation missions since the beginning of this year.
Still, the barriers to scaling are high, as financing costs are expensive and often depend on getting large government contracts, he said. “The United States has the best capital markets in the world…and the largest defense market, so it makes sense to be here,” Prince said.
