The European Commissioner for Defence and Space, Andrius Kubilius, warned that Europe needs to rapidly increase drone production to match Russia's capacity. Currently, the EU produces approximately 1.5 million drones per year, while Russia produces up to 10 million FPV drones, 130,000 jet attack drones or 1,700 ballistic missiles annually.
The inaugural meeting of the EU-Ukraine Drone Alliance, created by the European Commission to bring together the EU and Ukraine's defence industries, was held in Brussels. The 18 founding members, nine from the EU and nine from Ukraine, defined as a priority accelerating joint ventures and joint production between companies on both sides.
The alliance also defined objectives such as implementing European drone defence initiatives, maintaining production lines ready for rapid expansion, strengthening cooperation in command, control and reconnaissance systems, and identifying vulnerabilities in supply chains for essential components. Until the second meeting, scheduled for before the end of the year, members must work on these areas.
The partnership includes companies such as the Spanish Indra Group, the Italian Fincantieri, the German Quantum Systems and the Dutch Destinus, as well as Ukrainian manufacturers such as Skyfall Industries, Greentech Harvest and Tencore. Kubilius described the moment as a very important step and mentioned that the initiative could benefit from funding of up to 10 billion euros.
