A drone manufacturing facility in Kyiv owned by a U.S.-registered company was destroyed in a Russian ballistic missile strike, marking what appears to be the first known attack on an American-owned company operating in Ukraine since the start of the full-scale war.
The facility belonged to Terminal Autonomy, a Delaware-based defense technology company that develops long-range precision strike drones equipped with navigation systems designed to resist Russian electronic warfare and signal jamming.
The company specializes in “terminal autonomy” technology, a system that allows artificial intelligence to take control of a kamikaze drone during the final phase of its mission after radio or cellular communications have been disrupted.
Corporate records show Terminal Autonomy was incorporated in the U.S. state of Delaware in 2023. On its website, the company states that it develops loitering munitions and AI-guided precision weapons that are already being used against enemy targets on the front line.
Neither Terminal Autonomy nor Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense immediately commented on the strike.
Anthony Vinci, a former senior U.S. intelligence official and author of The Fourth Intelligence Revolution: The Future of Espionage and the Battle to Save America, said Russia is unlikely to distinguish between Ukrainian and foreign-owned military production facilities.
“Russia does not care who owns a production facility. It remains a legitimate military target. Whether it is American-owned or owned by someone else makes no difference,” Vinci said.
Earlier this month, U.S. President Donald Trump announced that the United States would grant Ukraine a license to manufacture Patriot surface-to-air missiles domestically.
Vinci said facilities producing Patriot missiles or other U.S.-designed defense systems inside Ukraine would also likely become targets for Russian forces.
Russia’s state news agency TASS was the first to report the strike, citing the Russian Ministry of Defense. While the report did not identify the factory as American-owned, it stated that “specialists from a Ukrainian-American company” were working at the site. TASS also reported that the facility was manufacturing AQ-400 Scythe and AQ-100 Bayonet drones.
According to a source familiar with the company, no casualties were reported in the attack.
