ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the challenges faced by the Ukrainian defence industry nowadays with a particular emphasis on the reforms of UkrOboronProm, the public consortium that gathers more than one hundred Ukrainian state-owned defence companies with 80,000 employees. UkrOboronProm was created in 2011 with the objective of facilitating cooperation with the Russian defence industry. However, in 2014, due to the annexation of Crimea by Russia and the support provided by Moscow to the separatists in eastern Ukraine, Kyiv ended its cooperation with Russia in the field of defence, cutting the strong industrial ties between the two countries. This chapter describes how the Ukrainian defence industry and UkrOboronProm in particular is trying to solve the challenge created by the loss of an important export market and supplier of spare parts while the entire country is reorienting its defence cooperation with the West, mostly NATO. To succeed in this endeavour, UkrOboronProm will need to radically transform itself to become more transparent, more efficient, more market-friendly and better armed against corruption. The role of private defence companies will also be discussed especially their relationship with UkrOboronProm.
