Ukraine and Czech Republic complete development of jet engine for drones

16 December, 2024 AI-PBS-350 engine at the Farnborough Air Show, July 2024. Photo: PBS Group The Ukrainian enterprise Ivchenko-Progress, together with the Czech company PBS, has completed the development of the AI-PBS-350 jet engine and has probably already launched its production.

This was announced by Pavel Cechal, Managing Director of the PBS Group. In July of this year, PBS presented at the Farnborough Air Show a completed model of the AI-PBS-350 engine, which was developed in cooperation with the Ukrainian state-owned enterprise Ivchenko-Progress. The new engine, which was announced in June last year, was optimized specifically for use in unmanned aerial vehicles and other military developments.

According to Cechal, the start of mass production at the company's facilities in Velka Bites (Czech Republic) is expected in the first half of 2025. Initially, it will be about dozens of units per year, with a further reaching of the planned volumes of hundreds of units.

He noted that the deliveries of AI-PBS-350 were possible, as their production was deployed at Ukrainian enterprises. When asked about the possibility of exporting the engines to foreign customers, Cechal said that Ukraine's needs were a priority. However, the cooperation between the two companies is developing rapidly, so Czech facilities will soon be able to supply the global market.

Potential in the global market

PBS Group reported that in 2024, their jet engine production had increased by about 300 percent compared to the previous year.

Next year, this growth is expected to be even more than 200 percent. "In fact, we have moved from dozens of engines produced to hundreds, and now we intend to move to thousands," says the company's managing director. The company has the production facilities in the Czech Republic and is building new ones in the United States and India to gain a foothold in the local markets.

Cechal believes that the latter market alone is capable of consuming thousands of jet engines, and that cooperation with Ivchenko will help them. "The final production will be in at least two locations, but we are not against additional acquisitions. Ideally, our US subsidiary will be fully operational within a year.

We expect that within two to three years, sales in the United States will amount to about USD 100 million," he said.

As a reminder, in 2022, the Ukrainian company Ivchenko-Progress presented its products at the Turkish exhibition SAHA EXPO.