European Commissioner for Economy and Productivity; Implementation and Simplification, Valdis Dombrovskis, has announced the location of the first European drone technology hubs at a NATO event attended by Unmanned Airspace.
Two hubs will be established in 2027 in order to develop, test and evaluate new land, maritime and air drone and counter-drone military concepts and technologies.
The first will be in Latvia, at the Selonia military training area, which also hosts one of NATO’s innovation ranges for drones and counter-drone technologies. It will focus on land and air drone and counter-drone technologies.
The second, in Scheveningen in the Netherlands, will focus on naval capabilities, seabed security and the protection of harbours and critical underwater infrastructure.
“In developing drones and counter-drone systems, Europe has one significant advantage: our partnership with Ukraine,” Dombrovskis said today (30 October) at the NATO FUSE defence technology demonstration event. “The EU remains Ukraine’s largest international supporter, having now provided over EUR 230 billion in financial support since February 2022.”
Dombrovskis also spoke about the Drone and Counter-Drone European Resolve (DECODER) project, which was approved in September and aims to help European countries build, scale up, and deploy drones and counter-drone technologies. The commissioner said DECODER “will close critical capability gaps” and strengthen Europe’s defence industrial base. Project DECODER is eligible to benefit from financial support under the European Defence Industry Programme.
The European Commission will launch the AGILE project early next year, to accelerate defence technology development and procurement. Dombrovski said it will support SMEs, startups and scaleups in moving from development to market uptake.
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Image: Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis (European Commission)
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