Oleksii Honcharuk, co-founder of the British-Ukrainian defence technology company UForce, and Matthias Lena, Business Development Director at the German company Quantum Systems, have become co-chairs of the Founders’ Council of the EU–Ukraine Alliance on Unmanned Systems. A source told LB.ua.
The vote took place during the second meeting of the Alliance’s Founders’ Council on 10 November.
What Is the Drone Alliance
The European Commission announced a call for the alliance’s founders on 5 May 2026. The structure is intended to bring together manufacturers of drones and counter-drone systems from EU countries and Ukraine, with the aim of countering the drone threat.
The Founders’ Council includes 18 companies on a parity basis: nine Ukrainian and nine European. In total, according to the European Commission, around 400 applications were received.
From the Ukrainian side: F-Drones, Skyfall Industries, Greentech Harvest, Tencore, Deviro, Vyriy Industries, Athlon Avia, TAF Industries and UFORCE. From the European side: ORQA, Indra Group, Fincantieri, WB Group, Destinus, Delair, RSI Europe, TERMA and Quantum Systems.
The inaugural meeting of the Council took place on 11 September 2026 in Brussels.
Read alsoWill Ukrainian drones be the first to join the EU? What the new Drone Alliance means for Ukraine
How the Alliance Is Structured
For the first two years, the Founders’ Council will operate, comprising the selected companies and representatives of the European Commission and Ukraine. After two years, a permanent council will be elected, with its membership re-elected every three years. Founding members will be able to stand for election to it.
Ukrainian representatives have veto rights on an equal footing with European Commission representatives.
Membership provides for the development of joint ventures, mutual recognition of certification and technological standards, the identification of vulnerabilities in supply chains, and access to testing facilities, including in Ukraine.
The alliance is part of the “Defence Readiness Roadmap to 2030”, presented by the European Commission on 16 October 2025.
In September 2025, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced the allocation of €6 billion for Ukrainian drone production through the Drone Alliance — the funds come from profits generated by frozen Russian assets.
At the opening of the September meeting, European Commissioner for Defence and Space Andrius Kubilius set out Europe’s request plainly: to learn from Ukraine how to scale up production quickly and shorten the development cycle. According to his estimates, EU industry produces about 1.5 million drones a year, while Russian capacity allows for the production of up to 10 million FPV drones annually.
UFORCE is a Ukrainian-British defence technology company founded in January 2025 by former Ukrainian Prime Minister Oleksii Honcharuk and People.ai founder Oleh Rohynskyi. It brings together nine Ukrainian defence enterprises and positions itself as an integrator of autonomous systems across the maritime, air and land domains; its developments include MAGURA sea drones, Nemesis and R18 bombers, and Liut ground systems.
Quantum Systems is a German company founded in 2015 whose reconnaissance drones are operating in Ukraine: Vector has been supplied since 2022, and since April 2024 it has been manufactured in Ukraine, where the company also has an R&D centre and a repair unit.