From "The Analyst":

UKRAINE’S ARMS INDUSTRY: ZERO TO HERO

Ukraine had a relatively minor military industrial base that was underfunded and under appreciated.
With most of its weapons from the soviet era, much of that industry was devoted to spare parts and maintenance for its equipment. Some ammunition was made locally but Ukraine’s history was mostly in heavy engineering for the former Soviet Union.
Ukraine made aero engines, ship engines, it built warships, ballistic missile motors and components for aviation. The Antonov aircraft were built in Ukraine back in those days.
Then all that was just left to rot. It still supplied engines for Russian warships but much of the rest just died a death, especially after 2014. Even the mighty Antonov slipped away into bankruptcy.
From 2014 there was a change in emphasis as the war in Donbas required support. The loss of Crimea stung.
With the invasion, came a totally new approach. Hundreds of companies sprang up to make things the state needed for the war. Often as volunteer organisations turning quickly into viable businesses.
Utterly dependent on foreign aid to defend itself the country faced a shortage of everything, everywhere, all at once. Yet the preparations it had made, the small things it had started to do rapidly became the catalyst for huge expansion.
One thing that has been achieved at the heavy industry end, is the production of 152mm shells for the older soviet era equipment. In addition Ukraine had been developing its own anti-ship missiles in the Neptune. These have scored significant victories - not least the sinking of the Moskva. They were also technically far more competent than western missiles like Harpoon, which would not have been able to carry out that attack in that weather. Suddenly everyone started to realise that Ukraine had the basis for a technological competence far beyond expectations.
And that competence has only expanded. The drone war and the Electronic Warfare industries have expanded exponentially.
The pace of the rate of change in those industries is simply staggering. What worked a month ago is already obsolete and modularity, software updates and changing capabilities are so rapid, that often pre-production equipment has to be tested as production starts and is modified on the fly in the factory to take in new developments.
This extends to systems like the Bodhana artillery system. Ukraine developed it, is building it, and within three months has changed 80 parts and made improvements based on field operational feedback. Industry literally working round the clock and hearing what’s being said and doing something about it at speed. No western industry could manage that and nor could Russia.
Ukraine has also had to expand and develop an extraordinary logistics system for supplying the frontlines with everything from food to bullets and spare parts on a scale that Indint think any western nation has even started to grasp if it had to fight a war like this. The food supply industry alone has had to expand dramatically to get 400,000 troops meals three times a day every day - that’s a huge undertaking on an industrial level by itself.
Across Ukraine innovation and technology, flexibility and efficiency are all part of the game. Industry is given leeway to move fast and work quickly. If lots of medium to small drone suppliers can upgrade and produce what’s needed then they’re given the leeway and funding to get it done. Outwitting the enemy and out-developing him are vital.
As western aid has dried up Ukraine is emphasising ever more the need for self reliance.
Yet it faces challenges. Missile and drone
strikes can find factories. Air defences are essential. Keeping what’s going on a secret and operating in dispersed locations has become essential. You can’t risk a single place producing a single product you depend on. And everything in Ukraine is in range of Russian missiles.
Innovation, technology, and determination have been at the core of Ukraine’s industrial strategy and success.
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