Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni commissioned a series of Russian-funded military facilities on 21 and 22 October 2026, closing a two-day visit by a Russian defence delegation led by Lieutenant General Aleksandr Kshimovskii.
The programme began at the Mechanised Warfare College in Kalama, Mubende District, where Museveni opened a digital multimedia classroom built to train crews on the BRDM-2MS, a modernised version of the Soviet-designed BRDM-2 amphibious armoured reconnaissance vehicle. The delegation then travelled to the 15 Marine Brigade Pier in Entebbe to inspect marine security equipment and a workshop under construction. According to the Daily Monitor, the Entebbe package includes a coastal surveillance radar, eight specialised boats, a floating dock, protective barriers, marine workshops, firefighting equipment, field ambulances and specialised transport vehicles.
On the second day, Museveni visited the 154 Marine Battalion School at Kalangalo, where Russia has helped establish a command post for Uganda’s Special Forces Command, before ending the tour at Magamaga Cantonment in Jinja District. There he commissioned a mechanised major repair facility, the centrepiece of a $53 million package of military equipment and infrastructure donated by Russia.
“I really want to thank His Excellency President Putin and the Russian delegation for this gift,” Museveni said at the Magamaga ceremony. He presented the donation as part of a long defence relationship, noting that Uganda first bought Russian military equipment in 1967.
A Year-Old Donation, Formally Commissioned
Reported shilling values for the package vary. New Vision and Pulse Uganda put it at about Shs228 billion, the Daily Monitor at about Shs230 billion, and Chimp Reports and other local outlets at Shs219 billion. All convert to roughly $53 million at current exchange rates. That dollar figure matches a Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) statement from October 2025 describing a $53 million donation of engineering and naval equipment, which Military Africa reported at the time. This month’s ceremonies therefore appear to have formally commissioned assets handed over about a year earlier, rather than announcing a new donation.
The Magamaga facility is equipped for heavy mechanised repair and combat engineering, including trench diggers and obstacle-clearing vehicles built on the T-55 tank chassis, a Soviet platform long used for specialised engineering variants. The package also includes mobile workshops, utility trucks and marine security boats for riverine and lake patrols on Lake Victoria and Uganda’s other inland waters.
Closing a Sustainment Gap
For the UPDF, the new infrastructure addresses a long-standing gap in sustainment capacity. Running Soviet- and Russian-origin equipment, from armoured vehicles to attack helicopters, has long required the force to send components abroad or rely on visiting technical teams for major repairs. A dedicated mechanised repair site at Magamaga is intended to extend the service life of that inventory at home rather than through overseas contracts.
Chief of Joint Staff Lieutenant General Jack Bakasumba said the facilities would allow the UPDF to carry out extensive repairs and develop the technical skills of its personnel. He urged commanders to “guard this investment and ensure that it delivers the intended benefits.”
Defence Minister Kiryowa Kiwanuka linked the upgrades to wider force modernisation, arguing that changing security threats demand more reliable equipment and stronger capabilities in surveillance, mobility, logistics and command. Kshimovskii described the donation as a reflection of mutual respect between the two countries and said Russia was ready to keep supplying Uganda. “We shall continue to develop mutual cooperation between Uganda and Russia,” he said.
From Repair to Local Production
Museveni urged his commanders to look beyond maintenance towards local manufacturing. He asked Chief of Defence Forces General Muhoozi Kainerugaba and other senior officers to assess whether Uganda could afford to produce some of the donated equipment at home with Russian technical support. “But these materials, I think, were made in Russia. What if we made them here with the Russians?” he asked at Magamaga, adding that any such move would depend on cost: “If the cost is affordable, we should invest and upscale.”
That ambition builds on a pledge Kampala made at the 2023 Russia-Africa Summit, where it signalled interest in becoming a regional hub for maintaining Russian-supplied equipment and, eventually, producing small arms. Uganda has tested that capacity on a smaller scale before. In April 2023, Museveni commissioned the country’s first locally overhauled Mi-24 attack helicopter, an early proof of the domestic sustainment capacity that Magamaga is now meant to expand. Kampala has pursued similar arrangements with other partners, including Czech supplier OMNIPOL, which delivered an L-410 transport aircraft to the UPDF Air Force in July.
Setbacks and Steady Engagement
The partnership has had setbacks. Uganda acquired Mi-28N Havoc attack helicopters from Russia in 2022 to modernise its rotary-wing attack fleet, but lost one in a fatal crash in January 2024. The incident has not derailed the wider relationship, which the two sides reinforced in 2024. Earlier this month, Ugandan officials attended Russia’s Center-2026 strategic exercise in the Urals alongside other African delegations.
Museveni also used the visit to push a technology agenda beyond hardware, calling on the UPDF to adopt artificial intelligence (AI) and automation to improve reconnaissance and observation. “I have encouraged our military to embrace science and technology, including AI and automation, to strengthen our defence capabilities,” he said. According to the Daily Monitor, he also told commanders that Uganda “should not only get the good equipment but also learn from” Russia.
What Magamaga Means for Kampala and Moscow
For Moscow, the package fits a broader pattern of using equipment donations and training infrastructure to sustain defence relationships across Africa while some Western governments reassess their own security partnerships on the continent. For Kampala, the benefit is more practical: a repair base intended to keep Russian-origin equipment operational without shipping it abroad. Whether it leads to the local manufacturing Museveni has proposed will depend on the cost assessment he has asked his commanders to prepare, and on how far Russia is willing to transfer production know-how rather than sell finished equipment.