Media: American drone manufacturer's plant destroyed in Kyiv
A Russian ballistic missile destroyed the plant of Terminal Autonomy, which produced drones for the Ukrainian Defense Forces, located in Kyiv. The enterprise belongs to an American corporation registered in the state of Delaware.
As reported by The Guardian, the strike on the plant was carried out on Friday, July 24. As a result of the attack, the production facilities of the enterprise were destroyed. According to a source familiar with the company's activities, there were no fatalities from the strike.
The publication notes that this may be the first known case since the start of the full-scale war where Russia purposefully attacked an enterprise belonging to an American company in Ukraine.
Terminal Autonomy was registered in Delaware in 2023. The company specializes in the production of strike drones and loitering munitions capable of performing tasks amid active Russian electronic warfare operations.
The destroyed plant produced long-range strike drones AQ-400 Scythe and tactical loitering munitions AQ-100 Bayonet. The company claims that their systems use autonomous navigation and elements of artificial intelligence that allow continued flight even when satellite communications and control channels are suppressed.
The Russian Ministry of Defense previously announced a strike on a drone assembly and storage facility in Kyiv. The Russian statement mentioned specialists from a Ukrainian-American company and the AQ-400 Scythe, AQ-100 Bayonet, and RQ-100 Scout systems. However, Russian authorities did not report that the enterprise is owned by a corporation registered in the US.
Terminal Autonomy and the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine have not publicly commented on the scale of damage and possible timelines for restoring production.
Former senior US intelligence official Anthony Vinci noted that for Russia, the foreign ownership of a defense enterprise is not a deterrent factor. In his opinion, Moscow will consider any production facility that supplies Ukraine with weapons as a military target.
The strike took place against the backdrop of expanding cooperation between Ukraine and Western defense companies and negotiations on localizing the production of foreign weapons. Kyiv seeks to increase domestic production of drones, missiles, and air defense systems.
Source materials: The Guardian, Terminal Autonomy
