German drone delivery pioneer Wingcopter is making a major strategic pivot into defense manufacturing. And in doing so, it announced a joint venture with TAF Industries — a company that might not be a household name here in the U.S. but that happens to be Ukraine’s largest UAV producer. TAF Industries will manufacture reconnaissance drones in Germany for Ukrainian forces.
A memorandum of understanding was signed on Feb. 13, 2026 at the Munich Security Conference in the presence of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrij Sybiha. Their presence high-level government backing for what both companies describe as a critical defense industrial partnership under the “Build with Ukraine” framework.
From humanitarian delivery to battlefield reconnaissance
For those who’ve followed Wingcopter’s trajectory, this represents a significant expansion given the company has been all about delivery drones thus far.
Wingcopter made its name developing the Wingcopter 198, which the company called a triple-drop delivery drone and was VTOL (vertical takeoff and landing)-style delivery drone capable of transitioning to efficient fixed-wing flight for long-range missions. The company has been operating humanitarian medical delivery routes in places like Malawi and Vanuatu, and has raised over €120 million from European and international investors to scale commercial logistics and infrastructure surveying operations. It has also worked with major companies such as UPS and Japanese airline ANA.
Now, through its newly established Wingcopter Security & Defence (WSD) unit, the company is leveraging its drone technology for military applications, specifically, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) missions.
What’s being built
The goal of this partnership? To manufacture TAF Industries’ TAF-U1 BABKA reconnaissance drone at scale in Germany to supply Ukrainian armed forces.
TAF Industries manufactures more than 30 defense products certified by Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense, including FPV drones (producing up to 80,000 units per month), reconnaissance UAVs, electronic warfare systems and AI-enabled battlefield technologies. Its drones are already being used in active operations.
According to Wingcopter, production is scheduled to begin later this year at facilities separate from the company’s headquarters, though specific location details and production volumes remain undisclosed.
“Scaling the production of systems already saving lives on the frontline is a top priority,” said Volodymyr Zinovskyi, CEO of TAF Industries. “This joint venture combines our battlefield-proven innovation with Germany’s industrial strength, turning operational expertise into scalable manufacturing.”
Beyond Ukraine: Future NATO and EU applications
While the TAF-U1 BABKA will be manufactured strictly for Ukrainian defense use, the companies have made clear this is not a single-product arrangement.
Future joint developments are explicitly targeted toward NATO and EU customers, with plans to “jointly develop and localize future UAV platforms for the European and NATO markets” to strengthen Europe’s defense industrial base, according to a press release.
Wingcopter separately confirmed in an email to The Drone Girl that “in the future, we will also jointly develop additional UAVs based on our proprietary Wingcopter IP.”
That means Wingcopter’s platform with proven long-range VTOL capabilities, sophisticated flight control algorithms, and a tilt-rotor mechanism that was originally designed for drones could one day be used in extended reconnaissance missions in contested environments.
What’s different about these military vs commercial drones?
One of the more interesting aspects of this partnership is how openly both companies are treating the technology as “dual-use” — meaning civilian drones share similarities with military applications.
An email from Wingcopter to The Drone Girl said that the company anticipates “knowledge and technology transfer in both directions.”
That’s not unlike much of what we’ve seen out of drone use in Ukraine. There, the lines between commercial and defense applications are hardly lines at all, particularly in areas like autonomy, obstacle avoidance, flight control, and long-endurance operations. Lessons learned from operating in GPS-denied or contested environments can inform more resilient civilian systems, just as commercial optimization work can enhance military platforms.
Wingcopter emphasized that the defense unit “will be a permanent additional pillar” rather than a temporary wartime expansion, and that there’s “no competition in terms of energy and resources between our defense efforts and our delivery or surveying activities.”
The company says it remains fully committed to existing humanitarian delivery missions, commercial logistics and infrastructure surveying.
Unlike some drone companies that have fully pivoted from commercial to military use, Wingcopter’s acknowledgment that they anticipate “knowledge and technology transfer in both directions” suggests they’re not stopping their commercial work.
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