Pavlo Yelizarov, founder of the Lasar’s Group UAV special unit, together with former Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, has set up the miltech company Mission Defense Partners (MDP). Yelizarov said this in an interview with DOU.
According to Yelizarov, the idea of creating the company emerged after it became clear that Fedorov would not return to the post of Defence Minister.
“When it became clear they were not going to bring Fedorov back to the post, we met and agreed to create a miltech company that would be based on our civilian production. In other words, a new-level company that will drive the entire Ukrainian defence industry forward. The idea is that we will hire smart people who are not currently in the Defence Forces. We will start working internationally, attract investment for Ukrainian start-ups and bring in modern foreign technologies that will allow us to modernise our drones so we can fight the Russians more effectively,” Yelizarov said.
MDP has three co-owners. Yelizarov owns roughly a third of the company, while the name of the third partner has not yet been disclosed. He clarified that he set up the new company as a civilian after leaving the Air Force.
One of the company’s priorities will be developing software and artificial intelligence for unmanned aerial vehicles. Yelizarov noted that Ukraine has reached a certain technological limit in drone speed, so further development of unmanned systems will also depend on software solutions.
MDP will also invest in Ukrainian start-ups.
“In our defence company, there is a separate line of work for this that deals with investing in start-ups. We are interested, for example, in technologies for in-flight retargeting of drones, and air defence solutions. One of the most painful issues right now is short-range missiles,” Yelizarov said.
Among the pressing tasks, he named the development of an inexpensive missile to intercept Russian strike drones of the Shahed type.
“Our task is to develop an all-weather missile to destroy Shaheds. And it is fundamentally important that it is inexpensive. Roughly speaking, the missile should cost $20,000–25,000 and at the same time work effectively in fog, rain and wind. As soon as we solve this task, Lasarʼs Group will be able to use them,” he said.
Yelizarov also reported that together with Fedorov he visited Italy and the United States, where they held talks, including with the US company Palantir.
“That is what Fedorov is working on now. That is why we were in Italy, which everyone knows about. There were rumours that Fedorov had dropped everything and was making money in Italy. In fact, he spent two days there; I was with him. Then we went to the United States for talks. Mykhailo held a meeting with Palantir, where they discussed allocating funds under an investment programme for Ukrainian start-ups. I hope that all the agreements with Palantir will be signed in the near future and the company will provide funding,” he said.
In addition, the MDP co-founder spoke in favour of simplifying procedures for exporting Ukrainian defence technologies to EU and NATO partner countries.
“Of course, some oversight is needed. The state must ensure that Ukrainian technologies do not end up in the hands of terrorists, drug traffickers or other criminals. That is what export control mechanisms exist for, like ITAR in the United States. We also have a procedure. But for certain EU and NATO partner countries, it should be made much simpler. So that you simply notify the export control authority about the contract concluded and the number of items delivered, rather than waiting for permits. And that’s it — foreign currency would come into Ukraine, which we are so short of today. Right now our production is only running at 30% capacity. Why can’t we use the remaining 70% of capacity, manufacture additional products and sell them abroad?” Yelizarov said.
By way of reminder, on 16 July Colonel Pavlo Yelizarov (Lazar) submitted a resignation report from the post of Deputy Commander of the Air Force. In a Facebook post, he explained this decision by citing Mykhailo Fedorov’s dismissal from the post of Defence Minister.