Bavarian site starts production of 5,000 AI-guided drones for Kiev

Mass production of more than 5,000 medium and long-range combat drones for Ukraine has begun at a site near Munich, the US-German defence company Auterion said on Thursday.

According to the company and its Ukrainian joint-venture partner Airlogix, the first drones were assembled under an order for the German government due for completion by mid-2027.

The order is worth around €300 million ($348 million), industry sources estimate. Follow-up orders and a long-term contract are expected under the Ukrainian partnership, which was only established in February this year.

The drone order is part of Germany's continuing broad support for Ukraine since the county's full-scale invasion by Russia in 2022.

Headquartered in the US county of Arlington, Virginia, Auterion maintains a major European software development hub in Munich and has its original engineering base in the Swiss city of Zurich.

In addition to the unnamed site in Bavaria, production is also set to take place at another location in eastern Germany. Two different drone models are involved - one medium-range and the other with a longer range of up to 1,500 kilometres.

Auterion is supplying the software for the drones, including the operating system, while Airlogix is providing the hardware. AI is used in their guidance system to ensure targets are hit despite electronic countermeasures by the enemy. 

Colloquially referred to as "kamikaze drones," as they are not intended to return, such devices typically carry payloads of tens of kilograms of explosives up to 100 kilograms or more as they seek enemy targets.