Germany funds 50,000 Shrike attack drones for Ukraine in €90 million deal

The contract

Germany is funding the purchase of 50,000 Shrike first-person-view attack drones for Ukraine, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters. Auterion CEO Lorenz Meier confirmed the contract is worth approximately €90 million (around $103 million) and that a European country is footing the bill. SkyFall, the Ukrainian manufacturer, confirmed Germany's involvement but declined to provide operational details. The German and Ukrainian defence ministries both refused to comment, citing security.

The contract is worth about €90 million and is funded by a European country.

Some of the drones have already been delivered to Ukraine's government, Meier said, with the remainder to be dispatched before the end of the year. The order marks one of the single largest known drone purchases for Kyiv by a Western government.

The Shrike drone

Shrike FPV drones, produced by SkyFall, have been in active use in Ukraine since 2023 and are known for being low-cost yet effective. The batch financed by Germany will carry software from U.S. defence-tech firm Auterion, enabling the drones to autonomously track and hit moving targets during the final approach. This feature is designed to reduce the effectiveness of Russian electronic warfare.

A variant, the Shrike 10-F developed by SkyFall with UK company Skycutter, recently topped the leaderboard in the first round of a Pentagon competition. That contest is part of a $1.1 billion American initiative to purchase hundreds of thousands of one-way attack drones.

Wider drone aid

Meier said Auterion is helping supply a total of 100,000 drones to Ukraine this year, working with multiple hardware makers and funded by several Western governments. That total includes a separate $50 million Pentagon contract for 33,000 drones, which have already been delivered. Last month, Britain announced it would provide 150,000 drones to Ukraine in 2026 as part of a broader £752 million ($1.01 billion) aid package.

Ukraine has leaned heavily on unmanned systems during the war, which has now lasted more than four years. Ukrainian forces conduct thousands of drone strikes every day, and domestic production runs into millions of units annually. The new German-funded addition would bolster a capability that both Kyiv and its backers see as increasingly decisive.