Ukrainian drone maker picks Northwest Ohio for first U.S. factory

Ohio is cementing its status as the premier production hub for America’s next-generation defense industrial base. Ukrainian Defense Drones (UDD)—the U.S. arm of Ukrainian manufacturer F-Drones—has selected Northwest Ohio for its first U.S. assembly and manufacturing center.

The multimillion-dollar project in the Village of Holland (Lucas County) is expected to create at least 300 advanced manufacturing jobs as the company scales production of first-person-view (FPV) drones and autonomous systems for U.S. and allied defense customers.

Why it matters

• Battlefield to Heartland: UDD represents F-Drones, which brings more than three years of active wartime operating experience in Ukraine. By moving production to Ohio, the company will onshore drone technology that has been iteratively developed, tested, and adapted under live combat conditions.
• The procurement pivot: Traditional defense procurement cycles move slowly for today’s electronic warfare. This project aligns directly with the Pentagon’s Drone Dominance Program—a $1 billion Department of War effort to rapidly arm combat units with low-cost, consumable drones at scale.
• The defense tech cluster: UDD joins a rapidly accelerating roster of defense innovators building at scale in Ohio. The state recently saw autonomous defense powerhouse Anduril spin up its massive Arsenal-1 plant in Pickaway County, alongside ongoing electric aviation manufacturing commitments from Joby Aviation.

Key numbers

• $1 billion: Total budget for the Pentagon’s Drone Dominance Program.
• 200,000+: The number of consumable drones the program intends to purchase by 2027.
• 2,000: FPV drone units UDD is contracted to deliver under its initial U.S. government prototype contract, following its sixth-place finish in the program’s “Gauntlet” testing phase.
• 300: Minimum new advanced manufacturing jobs coming to Lucas County.
• 130,000: The number of people already working in Northwest Ohio’s advanced manufacturing sector.
• $11.6 billion: Advanced manufacturing gross regional product (GRP) in Northwest Ohio, representing roughly 24% of the state’s total.

Behind the deal

The highly competitive site-selection process was steered by U2D2 Corp. (U.S.-Ukraine Drone Dominance), an organization focused on helping frontline Eastern European tech companies enter the U.S. market, secure defense contracts, and localize supply chains.

Local and state partners—including global business executive and Ottawa Hills Council member Darren Moore, JobsOhio, and the Regional Growth Partnership—leveraged Northwest Ohio’s manufacturing density to win the project.

Ohio’s Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) ecosystem, anchored by the National Advanced Air Mobility Center of Excellence (NAAMCE) in Springfield, heavily bolstered the state’s pitch. The network provides dedicated airspace and Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) testing capabilities essential for rapid unmanned systems deployment.

What’s next

Early operations in Holland will focus on assembling UDD’s F10 FPV platform. Over time, the company intends to integrate regional Ohio suppliers across machining, electronics, fabrication, and plastics to reduce exposure to fragile overseas supply chains.

According to Rear Adm. (Ret.) Michael Hewitt, U2D2’s chairman, the organization is currently assisting more than a dozen Ukrainian and Eastern European defense companies that collectively produce over 10,000 drones per day, positioning the Holland facility as an early step in a broader push to turn Ohio into a vertically integrated hub for autonomous systems.