Every month the company receives 30+ new applications from manufacturers, and about half of them reach out to the platform on their own, without any outreach from Flash Army. This is a market that has grown more than 50-fold since the start of the full-scale war and is now valued at over $50 billion. But there are things it won't agree to even for money.
The production capacity of Ukraine's defense industry grows every month, with new products and manufacturers added constantly. Along with that, marketplaces are increasingly turning down suppliers not because of price or technical specs, but because of breaches of ethical working principles.
Flash Army, a military marketplace working with hundreds of manufacturers supplying Ukraine's Defense Forces, shared some details about working with these companies.
According to Dmytro Tolstikov, head of supplier relations at Flash Army, one manufacturer proposed during negotiations to set a higher price for the military than for other customers. The response was immediate — a refusal.
“There was a proposal to sell products to the military at a higher price. That kind of cooperation model is unacceptable to us. It goes against the principles we work with our suppliers on,” Tolstikov said.
Cases like this aren't isolated in this market. In the drone-detector segment alone, the number of Ukrainian manufacturers listed on the platform has grown more than fivefold in a year.
For example, a year ago there were four suppliers of drone detectors capable of intercepting video signals on the platform. Today there are more than twenty. And that's just Ukrainian manufacturers.
According to Flash Army, over the past month alone, half of the new suppliers reached out on their own.
How FlashArmy Selects Suppliers
The team that selects suppliers for the whole country consists of several people: a department head, managers covering the domestic Ukrainian market, and managers covering international sourcing. The work starts with analysis — looking at specific needs.
The approach with international suppliers is different. If a brand is already well known on the market, such as Skyzone or BETAFPV, the task isn't to search for them but to reach out to the company directly: find contacts, write to them, and negotiate a dealership.
One of the standout aspects of how Flash Army works is how the company sets prices with Ukrainian suppliers.
“We price strictly at our suppliers' recommended retail price and make a point of adding no markups whatsoever. For the military, this means the most important thing: they can buy everything they need in one place without overpaying a single penny. That's why our company responds as firmly as possible to any attempt at speculation or price manipulation on products meant for our defenders,” explains Dmytro Tolstikov.
Beyond pricing policy, a manufacturer's business reputation remains an important selection factor. The company says it will end cooperation even with promising suppliers if they systematically spread false information about competitors or use smear-campaign tactics.
Before a product can join the platform, it goes through multi-stage review. This includes an expert technical assessment by specialists and developers of related equipment, as well as a detailed analysis of feedback from soldiers who test the equipment under real combat conditions. The company stresses that frontline combat experience is the decisive factor in deciding whether to continue working with a manufacturer.
