European Commission, particularly DG DEFIS
1. European UAS production-readiness and sustainment reserve
ID: IN-005
Lab: SCALE
Challenge: European manufacturers can design capable systems, but surge production, storage, spare-parts supply, maintenance and repair capacity are often created only after an order. This delays operational availability and shifts excessive ramp-up risk to industry.
Lead actor: European Commission (DG DEFIS) and participating national ministries of defence
Supporting actors: EDA, national procurement agencies, armed forces, European UAS and C-UAS industry, maintenance organisations
Timeframe: 12 months
KPI: At least five readiness contracts signed; audited surge and repair exercise completed; tenfold monthly-output capability demonstrated within 90 days; contract-specific spare-parts service levels met.
2. Critical-component sovereignty and a Trusted European UAS label
ID: IN-007
Lab: SCALE
Challenge: European production remains vulnerable where critical batteries, motors, magnets, flight-control electronics, navigation, communications, sensors, software or manufacturing tools depend on a small number of non-European sources.
Lead actor: European Commission (DG DEFIS and DG GROW)
Supporting actors: Member States, EDA, standardisation bodies, industry associations, manufacturers and suppliers
Timeframe: 100 days for the component list and methodology; 24 months for implementation targets
KPI: Component list, measurement basis and audit methodology published; resilience criteria applied in at least three national procurement programmes; annual progress against the 75% target reported on the same basis.
3. European UAS and C-UAS skills and training programme
ID: IN-008
Lab: SCALE
Challenge: Scale is constrained by shortages of production and test engineers, remote pilots, instructors, maintenance and repair technicians, software and cybersecurity specialists, and C-UAS operators. Qualification pathways are fragmented and not consistently recognised across borders.
Lead actor: European Commission and Member States, jointly with European industry associations
Supporting actors: EASA, EDA, vocational and academic institutions, chambers of commerce, armed forces, public safety organisations and industry
Timeframe: 12 months for the framework; 24 months for scaled delivery
KPI: Common profiles adopted in at least ten Member States; 25,000 people complete recognised qualification pathways; mutual-recognition mechanism in operation.
4. Remove financing barriers for defence-relevant SMEs and scale-ups
ID: IN-009
Lab: SCALE
Challenge: Defence and dual-use UAS companies can face restricted access to equity, working capital, insurance and tooling finance because of risk policies, long procurement cycles and the absence of bankable minimum orders.
Lead actor: European Commission, European Investment Bank and national promotional banks
Supporting actors: Member States, financial institutions, insurers, procurement agencies and industry
Timeframe: 12 months
KPI: Guarantee instrument operational with at least EUR 1 billion in commitments; eligibility criteria published; the number and value of transactions for qualified SMEs and scale-ups reported annually against a 2026 baseline.
5. Ukraine as an integrated partner in the European industrial base
ID: IN-010
Lab: SCALE
Challenge: Ukraine contributes highly current operational experience and fast development cycles, while cooperation with European industry remains slowed by project-specific arrangements, intellectual-property questions, export controls, security requirements and limited routes to co-production.
Lead actor: European Commission together with the competent Ukrainian ministries
Supporting actors: Member States, EDA, European and Ukrainian armed forces, research bodies and industry
Timeframe: 12 months
KPI: Common framework adopted; at least ten co-development or licensed co-production projects operating under it; model clauses used in participating projects.
6. Create a European Drone Components Reserve
ID: IN-058
Lab: SCALE
Challenge: Mass production can be stopped by shortages of motors, chips, batteries, cameras, navigation components and communications equipment.
Lead actor: EU Commission
Supporting actors: Member States, industry, EDA
Timeframe: 100 days for mapping; 24 months for reserve
KPI: No identified critical component dependent on a single supplier; stocks sufficient for six months of surge production.
7. Make Ukraine Part of the European Production Base
ID: IN-060
Lab: SCALE
Challenge: Ukraine possesses battlefield knowledge and industrial capacity that European programmes can fail to incorporate quickly enough.
Lead actor: EU Commission + Member States
Supporting actors: Ukrainian government, EU–Ukraine Drone Alliance, industry
Timeframe: 12 months
KPI: At least 20 European-Ukrainian production partnerships operating or contracted.
8. Faster operational authorisations and practical cross-border recognition
ID: IN-015
Lab: INNOVATION SPEED
Challenge: Specific-category and BVLOS approvals can remain lengthy and vary between Member States. Repeated national process steps limit a scalable European market and slow security-relevant operations.
Lead actor: European Commission and Member States, with EASA providing technical coordination
Supporting actors: National aviation authorities, Member States, ANSPs, operators and industry associations
Timeframe: 12 months
KPI: At least 90% of complete applications decided within 90 days; one digital cross-border process in use; no duplicate assessment of already accepted safety evidence.
9. Regulatory sandbox and approval pathway for autonomy and AI
ID: IN-017
Lab: INNOVATION SPEED
Challenge: Developers lack a sufficiently predictable route for demonstrating the safety, cybersecurity and operational suitability of autonomous and AI-enabled UAS functions across civil, public safety and military use.
Lead actor: European Commission, with EASA for civil aviation and EDA and national military airworthiness authorities for defence interfaces
Supporting actors: Member States, national authorities, research organisations, end users, standards bodies and industry
Timeframe: 12 months
KPI: Sandbox operational with at least 20 projects; published evidence-transfer rules; first acceptable means of compliance for selected autonomous functions within 24 months.
10. Jointly developed European strategic enablers
ID: IN-091
Lab: INNOVATION SPEED
Challenge: national governments
Lead actor: European Commission, particularly DG DEFIS
First step: Build a coalition of willing partners, who would jointly invest in European Enablers such as: launch capability, joint satellite system for reconnaissance and intelligence, aid defence, supersonic weapons etc.
Timeframe: 24 months
KPI: development of strategic enablers
11. Create an EU-wide "Frontline Tested" fast-track tier in defence procurement: systems with documented operational evidence from Ukraine (to a common EU–UA data standard) become eligible for simplified framework procurement in all Member States, alongside the existing "NATO Standardised" tier. Mutually recognise Ukrainian codification and test data instead of repeating national qualification.
ID: IN-095
Lab: INNOVATION SPEED
Challenge: Products reach TRL 5–6 in months, then stall for 18–24+ months at formal procurement gates because every country asks for its own evidence package and repeats trials. Battlefield proof from Ukraine is not recognised as qualification evidence. Meanwhile drone and EW technology changes every 2–8 weeks.
Lead actor: European Commission, particularly DG DEFIS
Supporting actors: National ministries of defence, Ukrainian defence authorities and armed forces
First step: Through the EU–Ukraine Drone Alliance, DG DEFIS and EDA, agree a one-page "operational evidence package" template (mission, conditions, EW environment, results). Pilot it in one SAFE/EDIP joint procurement for drones.
Timeframe: 12 months
KPI: At least 3 Member States accept the evidence package by Q4 2027. Time from validated combat evidence to framework-contract eligibility ≤ 90 days, compared with 18–24 months today.
12. Streamline and standardise defence procurement across EU and NATO countries, including binding buyer-process deadlines, harmonised testing and validation procedures, and proportionate "good enough" requirements.
ID: IN-119
Lab: INNOVATION SPEED
Challenge: National procurement practices remain fragmented, with limited mutual trust in other countries' procedures and persistent "not invented here" approaches.
Lead actor: European Commission, particularly DG DEFIS
Supporting actors: National defence procurement agencies; European Defence Agency
First step: Establish unified procurement guidelines through the European Commission.
Timeframe: 12 months
KPI: Percentage of joint EU procurement; percentage of accepted orders (by number and volume) based on other EU/NATO countries' qualification criteria.
13. Strengthen support for European defence-tech and dual-use start-ups, including a stable pathway for early-stage companies to grow.
ID: IN-127
Lab: INNOVATION SPEED
Challenge: Traditional defence funding mechanisms favour mature technologies and established suppliers. Early-stage innovators face difficulties accessing test environments, first customers and follow-on financing.
Lead actor: European Commission (DG DEFIS), in coordination with participating EU Member States
Supporting actors: Brave1; Ukrainian Ministry of Defence; European Defence Agency; NATO Innovation Fund; DIANA; private investors; defence primes and SMEs
First step: Launch an innovation fund and develop related programmes for all major and niche defence domains, including supporting technologies.
Timeframe: 12 months
KPI: An accelerator helps early-stage projects mature into companies, supported by a dedicated budget and team including advisers from Ukraine and partner countries; projects are selected for milestone-based funding covering prototyping, testing and validation.
14. European C-UAS standards, interoperability and joint procurement
ID: IN-022
Lab: RESILIENCE
Challenge: National C-UAS programmes use differing test methods, interfaces and operational concepts. This limits comparability, pooling, cross-border deployment and integration of sensors and command systems.
Lead actor: European Commission and EDA for coordination; industry and standards bodies for the interface baseline
Supporting actors: Member States, NATO, CEN/CENELEC, EUROCAE, EASA, ANSPs, test centres and end users
Timeframe: 12 months for the baseline; 24 months for the operational qualification framework
KPI: Common baseline published; at least 15 Member States use it in procurement or qualification; cross-border sensor and command-data exchange demonstrated in three multinational exercises.
15. Spectrum, navigation and command-link resilience
ID: IN-023
Lab: RESILIENCE
Challenge: UAS and C-UAS capabilities depend on satellite navigation and radio links that can be disrupted, while spectrum access and authorisation for resilient communications, detection, testing and electronic countermeasures differ across Member States.
Lead actor: European Commission and European spectrum-coordination bodies, with national regulators
Supporting actors: EASA, EUSPA, Member States, ANSPs, armed forces, public safety authorities and industry
Timeframe: 24 months
KPI: Common spectrum and authorisation approach adopted; resilience requirements included in all relevant new public procurements; independent-navigation fallback demonstrated in acceptance testing.
16. Designate rail maintenance-and-repair nodes in the military-mobility corridor plan, starting with Eastern border of NATO, and add tank-capable flatcars, heavy wagons, recovery wagons and gauge-adapted rolling stock as a joint-procurement category under SAFE / CEF.
ID: IN-105
Lab: RESILIENCE
Challenge: Corridors are planned around infrastructure (bridges, clearances) but not the rolling stock and maintenance capacity needed to move heavy forces; the Baltic 1520 mm network and Rail Baltica 1435 mm leave an interface gap.
Lead actor: European Commission, particularly DG DEFIS
Supporting actors: NATO and its relevant bodies; National ministries of defence
First step: Include a rolling-stock and maintenance-node assessment for Latvia, Lithuania and Poland for consideration in the implementation of the 2026 North Sea-Baltic TEN-T Corridor Work Plan and relevant EU military-mobility corridor coordination.
Timeframe: 24 months
KPI: Latvian (as Eastern border of NATO), Lithuanian or Polish node designated and funded; heavy-flatcar and recovery-wagon specification agreed by at least 3 Member States.