Ukraine is looking to scale its Air and Missile Defence by tapping the private sector. Let’s see how AMD as a service evolves! ⬇️
The Government of Ukraine has approved 24 private companies to offer air and missile defence as a service. Private provision of a capability that until now has been the reserve of the military or law enforcement.
Precise mass has lowered the targeting threshold. Russia has evolved the Iranian Shahed into a more capable domestically produced Geran and now attacks Ukraine with hundreds of long range drones and missiles on a daily basis. As Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) reports:
“The net result is drone saturation. It doesn’t matter if an individual Shahed hits its target. What matters is the compound effect the terror weapon has on civilians and the stress it places on air defenses. By saturating the skies with low-cost weapons, Moscow wages an attritional campaign targeting both the will of the Ukrainian people and the readiness of its air defense network.”
Ukraine has built a layered air and missile defence system that is world leading, but it cannot afford to defend everywhere all at once. Critical infrastructure is prioritised and this means lower priority public and private assets often go undefended. Private AMD as a service seeks to expand coverage and harness industry to develop capable and capacity to eliminate or mitigate threats:
“The private air defense project was launched in late 2025 on the initiative of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine to enhance the protection of employees and industrial facilities at enterprises that are regularly targeted by enemy drone attacks. Private air defense does not operate as an independent or unregulated entity. It constitutes an element of the country’s multi-layered air defense system under the command of the Air Command of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.”
The Ministry of Defence of Ukraine has a four stage process for private companies participating in the program:
1️⃣ Application followed by MoD inspection of Enterprise
2️⃣ Air Command allocates tactical area of responsibility, tasks and establishes command & control approach
3️⃣ Capacity building – Enterprise purchases air defence equipment, sets up training program
4️⃣ Enterprise Integrated into Air Defence System and becomes operational
Private Enterprises integrated into Ukraine’s Air and Missile Defence System and assigned targets on a regular basis. This program hasn’t just expanded Ukraine’s system by over 20 force elements, it is also scaling the training capability and capacity. The first ‘Shahed’ was downed by a private enterprise in April.
An interesting development that nations that lack Integrated Air and Missile Defence capacity will be paying close attention to!
📷 via Reuters and links to the articles mentioned are in the comments.