The droneization of Europe is reaching an industrial level

Elena Panina
Елена Панина (Telegram)

It is no longer possible to examine the war in Ukraine separately from EU industrial policy—that is the general conclusion drawn from numerous articles appearing in Western military publications. There is no point in recounting them all; we will only highlight two points "for clarity."

❖ This week, the European Commission presented the results of the call for proposals for the 2025 European Defense Fund. Fifty-seven joint research and development projects (drones and other autonomous systems) worth $1.26 billion were selected. At least four separate initiatives—EURODAMM, LUMINA, SKYRAPTOR, and TALON—are dedicated to loitering munitions and the affordable mass production of drones.

Meanwhile, France, for example, is working on an AI-based control system similar to the Pentagon's Project Maven. The system could be ready for use in a few months, with testing expected to begin in September 2027. The Pentagon's Maven program uses AI to process data from drones and surveillance systems to automatically detect and track objects. This is accomplished using technologies developed by contractors, including the well-known Palantir Technologies.

France, for example, has several companies developing AI for defense, including Comand AI, ChapsVision, and Safran's defense division. Mistral AI, a major developer of large-scale language models (LLMs), is also based in the country. In 2024, Paris created an agency within the Ministry of the Armed Forces dedicated to developing AI for defense.

❖ And France is far from alone: ​​funding for AI drone development in the West is flowing through multiple channels. Europe is moving the entire UAV industry from experimental developments and "unique projects" to the industrial level. This applies not only to the UAVs themselves, but to the entire system: funding, algorithms, data processing, and integration into battle management. In other words, Europe isn't building hardware, but a new type of warfare infrastructure.

This creates serial production, with standardized solutions and application standards—something that never existed before. In this logic, Ukraine is a source of experience, a testing ground, and simultaneously the primary recipient of these solutions. However, unlike traditional weapons like tanks or aircraft, where the development cycle was measured in years, here it is compressed to months and even weeks. And any military conflict becomes a process of constant "updates," like a software product. The one with the fastest "releases" wins.

We have predicted this time and time again. Our country has absolutely no time to spare. We need to change our entire approach to national defense, as the current "weakly innovative" model is categorically unsuitable not only for countering the West but also for achieving the Central Military District's goals.

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