The United States wants to launch production of Magura unmanned surface vessels (USVs) used by militants of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU), The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on July 22.

“The USVs, known as Magura, will be produced by Portland-based company ReconCraft, which manufactures vessels for special operations forces,” the article says.

It is emphasized that implementing such an initiative would be a “major step” by Washington and Kyiv toward a kind of arms-exchange operation. As the publication explained, the Pentagon is particularly interested in the idea because it is currently tasked with expanding its arsenal of autonomous weapons.

A day earlier, it became known that the Pentagon plans to purchase 40 radio intelligence systems for the AFU that make it possible to detect unmanned aerial vehicles. It was уточнялось that potential suppliers are currently being sought for such equipment, which in turn can operate in the range from 20 megahertz to 8.5 gigahertz. According to the plan, Kyiv will even receive a license for the relevant product as part of the agreement.