Europe wants to build drones jointly with Ukraine: how will it do it?

BrusselsDrones on the battlefield, drones in hybrid attacks... and maritime drones as well. This week, two commercial vessels were simultaneously attacked with drones in the Black Sea. One of them sank and there were fatalities. The escalation of maritime drone attacks adds to the air strikes that continue to hit Ukraine. On Thursday, unmanned aerial vehicles left six dead and 17 injured in Kyiv.

Drones have become an omnipresent tool beyond the battlefield and, due to their accessibility, have revolutionized the logic of war, especially in Ukraine. While Europe has traditionally bet on advanced weapons systems and sophisticated defenses, Russia has increased its military production capacity and turned drones into a central piece of its attrition strategy. But an alliance of Ukrainian and European companies aims to take a leap in the drone industry and the systems to combat them.

"We are throwing Ferraris at frisbees." With this metaphor, the American Democratic congressman Ted Lieu summarized the economic imbalance posed by drone warfare. Weapons systems that cost millions of euros can be destroyed by devices that cost only a few thousand. The same problem translates to air defense: intercepting cheap drones with much more expensive missiles can exhaust arsenals and force countries to spend disproportionate amounts to neutralize low-cost threats. An asymmetry that the Kremlin exploits to wear down Ukrainian defenses and test the capabilities of its Western allies.

In this context of urgency, Ukraine has turned to producing drones to meet the needs of this high-intensity war. According to Drone Intelligence estimates, the country produces millions of devices each year, a figure much higher than the European Union's production, but still much lower than the Kremlin's. Its strong point, however, is not only the manufacturing capacity, but above all the speed with which companies and armed forces introduce modifications based on experience at the front.

Despite the power of the Ukrainian model, which has expanded national production and developed its own systems, Kyiv suffers from a structural shortage of weaponry. Although the country has managed to cover more than half of its front-line needs through its own production, it needs foreign aid to cover part of its military needs and funding for the war of attrition posed by the Kremlin.

The defense industry of NATO countries, for its part, was also not prepared to replenish ammunition at the pace required by the war in Ukraine. Production and procurement timelines act as a brake on manufacturing and replenishing arsenals at the speed they are consumed at the front. Furthermore, the most recent incidents, such as drone incursions or hybrid attacks, have highlighted the need for some countries to strengthen their own security. But now "Europe is trying to make up for lost ground in the drone war," asserts Luigi Scazzieri, an analyst at the European Union Institute for Security Studies.

To remedy this problem, and also the lack of support from the Trump administration, the EU has created an alliance with European and Ukrainian companies to accelerate the development and manufacturing of drones and anti-drone systems. The goal is precisely for Europe to be able to produce them quickly, in large quantities, and at a low enough cost to be able to sustain a drone war.

Kyiv's speed, European capacity

The basic idea is to leverage Kyiv's agility with European capacity. "Ukraine brings proven battlefield experience and specialized knowledge in mass production. European countries, for their part, contribute industrial capacity, their own technology, and a significant volume of funding." This should allow for rapid and innovative manufacturing on a large scale.

The alliance, which Brussels announced in July, should be understood as a platform to connect companies and promote joint projects. It includes 18 companies, nine European and nine Ukrainian, selected from nearly 400 candidates, which met for the first time this September. It also includes startups, researchers, armed forces, and other users from EU countries and Ukraine.

The EU Defense Commissioner, Andrius Kubilius, pointed out at the time that the priority of the agreement is to facilitate the creation of common projects and companies, share technology, secure the supply of components, and accelerate the manufacturing of new systems. "Copy and paste (the Ukrainian system) into Europe is the biggest challenge," he declared, setting the goal of managing to scale development cycles and increase production scale in a matter of weeks.

The cooperation includes both drones and technologies to detect and neutralize them. The funding will be supported by Brussels, but it does not have its own announced budget. In September, Kubilius announced that 200 million euros from frozen Russian assets will be allocated to co-finance drone production in Ukraine.

Brussels wants the first tangible results to arrive before the end of the year. The speed with which the cooperation will materialize, however, will depend on several obstacles. Luigi Scazzieri identifies three: project funding, reluctance to share and protect intellectual property, and the difficulties that Ukrainian companies may face in accessing the European market.