In cooperation with DIGITALEUROPE From Ukraine to the Middle East, drones and counter-drone capabilities are reshaping conflict. Low-cost autonomous and semi-autonomous systems can increasingly threaten high-value military assets and put critical infrastructure at risk. Energy facilities, ports, airports and logistics hubs are becoming part of the battlespace. A deeper transformation is also underway: warfare is shifting from a small number of sophisticated platforms towards autonomy, intelligent mass, speed and adaptability, driven by AI-enabled systems, advanced sensors and secure connectivity. Europe has world-class technologies, strong defence industrial actors and a dynamic innovation ecosystem. Building on initiatives such as the multinational priority capability area on drones and counter-drones led by the Netherlands, governments, the defence industry and technology innovators must now accelerate joint efforts to close the gap between prototype and fielded capability — and build the ecosystem Europe needs for the next era of drone and autonomous warfare.
- How must military doctrine, supply chains and skills evolve when cheap autonomous systems can neutralise billion-euro capabilities?
- Europe has the technology but still struggles to deploy at scale. Can initiatives like the Dutch-led priority capability area on drones and counter-drones unlock faster testing, procurement and industrial scaling?
- As warfare shifts from human-piloted systems to AI-enabled swarm operations, who will design and control the command architectures that manage autonomous systems at the speed of modern conflict?
Executive Summary Technology is not the constraint. Swarmer has demonstrated AI-enabled swarm autonomy, and Sateliot has demonstrated 5G space connectivity superior to existing GNSS by three orders of magnitude. It is the procurement timelines, accreditation fragmentation, absent spectrum sovereignty and a financing ecosystem still dependent on US capital that are preventing deployment at the speed the threat demands. Brigadier General Rietbergen's proposal for a network of drone technology hubs where companies can test, fail, iterate and access contracts without waiting for a perfect system was endorsed by all panellists as the most practical near-term structural response. Tarja Jaakkola provided the NATO complement: innovation ranges, framework contracts under NCIA and a new approach to procurement that pays for production capacity and innovation capability rather than discrete system acquisitions. Serhii Kupriienko mentioned that the underlying challenge is the battlefield that is already too fast and too complicated for humans to manage. Autonomous systems directing autonomous systems is inevitable, and the question is whether democratic societies build that capability transparently and traceably, or leave it to actors who will not. Livestream Link: https://youtube.com/live/OVjXKk22LNM?feature=share
