Welcome back to the #47 edition of The New Defense Post!
In this edition, we’ll cover:
Spotlights: Saab Unveils Full-Scale Model of Its Supersonic Stealth Drone Concept; Patria and Ukraine's General Cherry Sign Letter of Intent to Build Drones in Finland; Diehl and Polaris's Missile-Carrying Drone COBRA Completes Its First Flight.
Other News: The EU approves €6.1 billion for Ukraine to buy air defense systems and ammunition.
Fundraising News: A quiet week.
Bonus Section: General Cherry has now signed manufacturing deals on three continents this year. What does that tell us about where Ukraine's drone expertise is actually going?
The Acutronic Group serves as the hidden backbone to much of the aerospace & defense industry, delivering the picks and shovels needed for next-generation systems.
We are the only manufacturer of micro-turbines, actuators, power systems, rate tables, and vibration test systems with a global footprint across the US and Europe.
Spotlights
1. Saab Unveils Full-Scale Model of Its Supersonic Stealth Drone Concept
Photo Credit: Saab
Saab showed journalists a full-scale model of the Saab A3 at Malmen Air Base in Sweden on August 21. The unveiling came just ahead of the Swedish Air Force's 100th anniversary Jubilee Air Show, which ran August 22 to 23.
A3 is a proposed supersonic stealth uncrewed aircraft meant to fly alongside fighter jets, the newest and most advanced concept in Saab's Autonomous Collaborative Platform program. It is built for the missions on which militaries might prefer not to send a pilot: electronic warfare, suppressing enemy air defenses, and strikes deep in contested airspace. (Militarnyi, TWZ)
Two smaller demonstrators in the same program, A1 and A2, are already funded by the Swedish Ministry of Defence through 2030. Both use the same F414 engine that powers the Gripen E and F. A1 is due to fly within 15 months. A3 has no such contract yet. Saab puts its eventual lifecycle cost at roughly a third of the Gripen's and says it could fly in the early 2030s (only if Sweden decides to pay for it). (Militarnyi)
🗣 Peter Nilsson, head of Advanced Programs at Saab: "We have floated the view that this would be a great asset to the Gripen E, but right now there is no commitment." (TWZ)
📰 Our Take: How do you tell a real next-generation combat aircraft program apart from an expensive advertisement for one? Simply put: look at what actually has money behind it. A1 and A2 have a Swedish government contract through 2030, a real jet engine already flying on Gripen, and committed test dates. A3, the model everyone is looking at this week, has none of that. Nilsson said so himself: no commitment, just a hope Sweden eventually pairs it with the Gripen fleet.
That does not make the unveiling pointless, though. Saab needs political and budget buy-in before it can fund an actual A3 program. And a walk-around model at a 100th-anniversary airshow might make a more persuasive case to defense officials than a slide deck. The number that will actually decide this is Saab's own claim: a lifecycle cost around a third of the Gripen's.
2. Patria and Ukraine's General Cherry Sign Letter of Intent to Build Drones in Finland
Photo Credit: Office of the President of Finland
Patria, a Finnish state-backed defense company, and Ukrainian drone manufacturer General Cherry signed a letter of intent on August 23 to jointly develop and produce unmanned systems in Finland.
The signing happened in Kyiv and was part of a broader Ukrainian-Finnish roundtable on defense industry cooperation, held during a visit by Finnish President Alexander Stubb ahead of Ukraine's Independence Day, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also taking part.
Patria was not the only company in the room but one of at least three Finnish firms, alongside Insta and Boomeranger, signing agreements with Ukrainian counterparts that same day. By Zelensky's own account of what was actually signed, the agreement covers drone production in Finland, new work on unmanned naval systems, and a separate facility for building unmanned ground vehicles. (Militarnyi, Kyiv Independent, Patria)
Patria itself is 50.1% owned by the Finnish state and 49.9% owned by Norway's Kongsberg Defence and Aerospace. Its actual core business is armored vehicles, not drones, and its existing drone line, three basic quadcopters, only came through acquiring Finnish company Nordic Drones in 2024. This is, in effect, a Nordic state-backed venture with limited drone experience of its own, reaching for battle-tested Ukrainian designs rather than spending years developing its own.
The letter of intent is non-binding. Neither side has disclosed info such as factory location, a timeline, or an investment figure.
🗣 Mikko Leino, Executive Vice President of Patria's Defence and Weapon Systems business: the partnership "further reinforces Patria's expertise in unmanned defence systems and drone development." (Patria)
📰 Our Take: Finland is the third country General Cherry has signed a manufacturing agreement with this year. First came a joint venture with US firm Wilcox Industries, in the spring. Then a components plant with Croatia's Orqa, in April. And now this. A Ukrainian FPV and interceptor maker is starting to look less like a single company and more like a franchise which licenses proven designs to whichever partner brings the factory and the local market access.
For Patria, this is a fast way to get combat-relevant drone technology without years of in-house development. Getting bundled into a presidential-level roundtable, alongside two other Finnish companies signing their own Ukrainian deals, does not hurt either. It is still just a letter of intent, and only one of several signed that day. What matters now is whether Patria commits real capital and picks a site before this wave of enthusiasm for Ukrainian drone expertise cools off.
3. Diehl and Polaris's Missile-Carrying Drone COBRA Completes Its First Flight
Photo Credit: Gareth Jennings
COBRA flew for the first time on August 21, more than 20 kilometers over the Baltic Sea. It comes from Bremen startup Polaris Raumflugzeuge, which works together with Diehl Defence. The aircraft weighs just over 600 kilograms, light as these things go. Its whole job is to carry an IRIS-T air-to-air missile on its back, so the missile can reach much further than it would from a ground launcher or a fighter jet alone. (hartpunkt)
The project is called AirLAS. The idea is that it flies ahead of manned fighter jets into dangerous airspace, or stretches how far a ground-based IRIS-T system can reach, using mostly the missile's own sensors so the carrier itself stays cheap and can be reused. Diehl and Polaris first agreed to work together at the Paris Air Show back in June 2025. Back then they expected to test-fly it that same year. Then it slipped to spring 2026. Friday's flight, when it finally happened, carried no missile and no dummy weight standing in for one. (hartpunkt)
📰 Our Take: IRIS-T already works well in Ukraine, taking down Russian missiles, drones, and aircraft for years now. Like any ground-based system, it can only reach as far as the missile flies from wherever the battery sits. Put that missile on a forward-flying carrier instead, and it launches much closer to the threat and stretches the battery's reach without needing a longer-range missile or another battery.
The same logic works for manned fighters. Send the carrier into contested airspace first, and the pilot does not have to. That is roughly Saab's bet with the A3 this week too, just cheaper and earlier, from a company that mainly builds hypersonic spaceplanes rather than missiles. Worth remembering, though: Friday's flight carried no missile and no dummy weight standing in for one, so nobody has actually tested how the aircraft handles once that weight gets added, or whether it can survive real contested airspace.
Other News
Fundraising News
A quiet week for funding rounds specifically.
Bonus Section: Where Is Ukraine's Drone Expertise Actually Going?
Photo Credit: General Cherry
This week's Patria letter of intent is not General Cherry's first move outside Ukraine this year. So let us trace this pattern, which says more about where Ukrainian drone expertise is heading.
In March, General Cherry agreed to build drones with the US firm Wilcox Industries in New Hampshire, primarily for the US market and Pentagon contracts, though the deal still required presidential-level approval before it could even be registered.
In April, a similar memorandum with Croatia's Orqa was issued, covering production in both Ukraine and Croatia. Finland makes three. Same combat-proven designs each time, paired with a different local partner: an American parts specialist, a Croatian UAV maker, now a Nordic state-owned defense company. (Ukrainska Pravda, Militarnyi)
We can see a broad trend here. Ukrspecsystems opened a UK facility in February with roughly £200 million invested, and Quantum Frontline Industries, a German-Ukrainian joint venture, launched in southern Germany late last year. Western partners get combat-tested designs. Ukrainian firms get capital and markets they cannot easily reach while the war continues at home. (The Defense Post)
But none of these deals has produced a working factory yet: Wilcox is still finalizing a start date, Orqa's plant was only promising first units "in the near future" as of April, and Patria has committed to nothing beyond a signature and a photograph.
Love these insights? Forward this newsletter to a friend or two. They can subscribe to our website.