UKR: Ukraine’s new weapons codification process

BLUF: Ukraine's MoD has streamlined the procedure for assigning NATO stock numbers to military equipment and weapons. This means fewer tests, documents, and required approvals. Manufacturers also have a much bigger responsibility to ensure the quality of products. 

The E-points bonus system that rewards military units for completed combat tasks will be expanded to allow procurement of components.

The 8th Airborne Assault Corps has launched new software called Target Hub within DELTA to boost target destruction and avoid bureaucratic complications. 

Terra Drone Corporation and Amazing Drones LLC have announced a strategic partnership to produce interceptor drones in Ukraine, marking the first Ukrainian-Japanese partnership. 

Russia is ramping up the use of gliding aerial bombs with more than 5,700 attacks with this weapon in January 2026. Russia scaled up the production of gliding bombs roughly twofold and increased the number of its bomber aircraft.

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The new rules reduced the number of required documents, standardized requirements, and accelerated approval for operational use, said Anastasiia Mishkina, executive director of the Tech Force in UA coalition.

The changes are designed to make the codification procedure clearer, faster, and more accessible to all manufacturers, according to the press office of Brave1, a government platform for military innovation.

Manufacturers of weapons, military equipment, and ammunition no longer need to coordinate or approve technical specifications for their products with the Ukrainian government, including the Ministry of Defense. 

Instead, they can now set out the technical specifications themselves in a regulatory document that establishes technical characteristics for a product, methods of quality control, acceptance rules, packaging, labelling, storage, and product сapabilities.

Manufacturers are required to register the technical specifications to begin the codification process. 

The state enterprise Ukrmetrteststandart, under the management of the Ministry of Economy, is now in charge of registering technical specifications and entering them into the electronic database ‘Technical Specifications of Ukraine’ at the manufacturer's request. In order to register, a company can use a template available on the Ministry of Defense's website, prepare a draft, and send it along with a letter to Ukrmetrteststandart. The registration fee is approximately $320.

After registering the technical specifications, the manufacturer must submit documents to the Ministry of Defense, including preliminary test protocols — but this can now be done through the ministry's official website. The manufacturer must then confirm the declared characteristics during tests conducted with the participation of Ministry of Defense representatives.

The state is putting more emphasis on the proper preparation of design, technological, and administrative documentation in compliance with international standards, Maria Mordashko, CEO of electronic warfare manufacturer Rebel Group, told The Arsenal. 

Unified state document requirements have helped gear the work of manufacturers toward NATO standards.

While the new rules haven’t made writing technical specifications any easier, the new requirements for weapons have streamlined the systematization of technical and operational characteristics.  Manufacturers have also gained access to certified laboratories for faster testing, Mordashko said.

Products are tested at proving grounds in accordance with testing methods and programs prepared by the manufacturers themselves. Ministry of Defense staff evaluate only the characteristics that the company has specified in its documents.

"Testing is easy to pass if the product meets the declared technical specifications," Maksym Vasylchenko, CEO of ground robotic systems manufacturer Tencore, told The Arsenal. In Tencore's case, a NATO stock number (NSN) was assigned one month after the documents were submitted to the Ukrainian MoD. 

Ammunition can now be codified without demonstration tests, provided that representatives of the state customer are involved in the preliminary tests and the test program and methodology are approved by the state customer.

Manufacturers also no longer need to prove, prior to codification, that the military has a need for their product. For government customers, manufacturers now must also provide their own quality certificate upon delivery for each unit of their unmanned or EW systems without additional inspections.

Codification is mandatory for obtaining state contracts, and simplifying the procedure reduces obstacles for manufacturers. This is especially impactful for small teams and startups that have innovative solutions but do not always have sufficient administrative resources. 

Military units can purchase products that have a NATO stock number through direct contracts or the DOT-Chain Defence system. After using them, they can then report their effectiveness to command. This will simplify the assessment of demand for products for large state orders.

Codification is also a useful investment tool for manufacturers, said Maksym Dybenko, a representative of VARTA DroneHunter, a company that manufactures drone interception systems. 

Having an NSN signals to investors that the product meets its declared characteristics, is ready for sale and use, and can generate profit, he told The Arsenal.

Since the new rules were introduced in early March, more than 40 manufacturers have already applied under the simplified procedures. 

"We expect more telling dynamics to emerge over the next few months," a Brave1 representative said.

The main problem is typically the gap between the speed of engineering innovation and the speed of handling paperwork that goes along with it, Mordashko explained. EW-maker Rebel Group strives to develop new products as quickly as possible to counter enemy threats, and simplifying codification helps deliver them to the army faster, she said.

The Ministry of Defense and Brave1 are collecting feedback from manufacturers to identify any issues with the new procedure. So far, one key challenge is making changes to an already codified product and its documentation during modification. In practice, it is sometimes easier to go through the whole procedure from scratch.

Manufacturers, especially new startups, also want better informational and advisory support. 

Сodification still does not guarantee a state order, and manufacturers want greater predictability in the procurement of codified equipment, said Mishkina. It’s also vital to minimize the human factor and shorten the timelines for approving NSN code assignment decisions and signing corresponding orders at the MoD.

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Ukrainian military units will be able to exchange e-points for weapon components through the Army of Drones.Bonus program, a military incentive system that awards bonuses to units for combat achievements. 

“As for components, there is always a need for them, because this [war] involves constant testing and the search for new solutions, as well as a continuous exchange of experience with other units,” said a procurement specialist of the Unmanned Systems Service, 13th Brigade of the National Guard of Ukraine Khartiia, with the call sign ‘Mark.’ UGVs arrive already in a state of basic readiness to carry out some combat tasks, but often brigades can modify them so that the tasks are carried out more safely, ‘Mark’ said.

A UGV operator who requested anonymity for security reasons told The Arsenal the move could speed up the process of adapting weapons to combat conditions. Not all components in ready-made solutions are suitable for specific conditions, or they turn out to be unnecessary, he said. 

UGVs sometimes come with unnecessary spare parts, for instance, making the purchase more expensive. Allowing units to select products without unnecessary components, or to upgrade only specific parts when their functions become outdated, would be a beneficial solution, the UGV operator said.

According to ‘Mark’, the greatest demand will be for communication systems that allow for bypassing Russian electronic warfare. 

The 8th Airborne Assault Corps has created a target-detection service to speed up the destruction of targets. The Kursk military group, under the command of the 8th Corps, was the first to test this system. Its full deployment within the military group is scheduled to be completed by the end of April 2026. 

“The Target Hub module is integrated into the DELTA system and technically functions like a Kanban board, where each target has its own card and goes through the corresponding stages of its lifecycle. Users can visualize the nature of each target as conveniently as possible and work with it effectively,” Major Anton Shelyfist, Acting Head of the Digital Development, Digital Transformation, and Digitalization Group told The Arsenal.

Along with the 8th Corps of the Airborne Forces, the Center for Innovation and Development of Defense Technologies and the 5th ISTAR Center’s combined detachment worked on the development for several months. 

The digitization of these processes has reduced the bureaucratic procedures for identifying and approving the destruction of targets. Now this can be determined automatically within the system, and thus fewer targets may be missed due to the accelerated process.

Japanese drone developer Terra Drone Corporation is teaming up with Ukrainian interceptor drone manufacturer Amazing Drones LLC for a strategic partnership. The exact amount of the investment has not been disclosed, though the corporation has said its total investment in Ukrainian projects amounts to about $10 million.

“This is essentially a joint venture. We will manufacture the products in Ukraine with Japanese support, recommendations, and resources,” Maksym Klymenko, CEO of Amazing Drones LLC, told The Arsenal. 

According to him, the companies are also considering expanding into the production of other types of drones in the future. Terra Drone already has expertise in reconnaissance drones, positions itself as an alternative to platforms like the DJI Mavic, and plans to enter the Ukrainian market with this product in the near future.

As Klymenko noted, Amazing Drones LLC aims to scale and enter new markets, including Japan. Such collaboration is limited at the moment due to existing legal restrictions in Japan that still need to be addressed, he explained.

Russia is stepping up its use of gliding aerial bombs, with a record number of approximately 5,700 bombs used in January 2026. February also saw a record, with 328 launched per day.  Russian forces used gliding bombs in the early years of the war to break through Ukrainian defenses, but this weapon has now become a tool of widespread psychological terror, aviation expert Bohdan Dolintse told The Arsenal.

Russia has stockpiles of aerial bombs dating back to the Soviet era, and in recent years it has managed to modernize this weapon—it can now reach greater distances of about 50-70 km and is more resistant to electronic warfare. According to Dolintse, Moscow has roughly doubled its production of gliding bombs. 

As of spring 2024, Russia had approximately 200 Su-34 and Su-35 aircraft in service that it used to carry gliding bombs. Throughout 2025, however, they steadily increased the number of these bombers, acquiring more than a dozen of each type.

Targeting the production of gliding bombs and their components is a top countermeasure for Ukraine. “Reducing production within the chemical industry specifically related to the manufacture of explosive mixtures could significantly impact Russia’s capacity to produce gliding bombs,” Dolintse said.

By: Oksana Zabolotna

Introducing a Pilot Project for Testing AI-Based Military Technologies and Export

Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine № 310 

Why it’s important:

This resolution introduces a special controlled framework for testing and developing military AI technologies in Ukraine. It provides controlled access to real Ministry of Defense data and software, without which it is impossible to train effective models (e.g. reconnaissance, target recognition, and decision-support systems). This is critical, as data remains the primary bottleneck in the development of defense AI. 

In addition, the resolution establishes a new model of interaction between the state and the private sector: The state provides intellectual property and infrastructure, while businesses provide innovation. At the same time, the resolution regulates export and cooperation with partners, enabling the integration of Ukrainian developments into international defense ecosystems without compromising security control.

Proposals:

Stage: Entered into force on March 13.  

Initiator: The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine

What’s next: Implementation of the resolution.

Kvertus is seeking a strategic joint venture partner to scale international production of our battle-proven electronic warfare ecosystem, Atlas, which combines the Azimuth electronic intelligence system and the Mirage smart jamming system. Atlas detects UAVs at distances of up to 115 km and suppresses them at up to 30 km, and is already deployed for frontline and critical infrastructure protection. 

“We are looking for a NATO-licensed strategic partner with full-cycle manufacturing capabilities — from SMT lines to RF calibration facilities — to launch joint production and secure access to defense markets,” said Kvertus CEO Yaroslav Filimonov.