National governments, including finance and economy ministries

1. Build indoor drone training grounds (basketball-court sized) in all larger cities, run free by the municipality, so youth can practice drone flight. This also builds the foundation for a future drone-related workforce and entrepreneurship. Vilnius is a good model here.
ID: IN-033
Lab: SCALE

2. Guarantee Industrial Surge Capacity
ID: IN-057
Lab: SCALE
Challenge: Firms cannot economically maintain idle factories for wartime demand.
Lead actor: National governments / Ministries of Defence
Supporting actors: Industry, finance ministries, EU Commission
Timeframe: 12 months
KPI: Contracted ability to increase output 5× within six months.

3. Counter Russian Tactical Nuclear Threat Messaging Through Diplomatic Communication
ID: IN-084
Lab: SCALE
Challenge: Russian threats involving tactical nuclear weapons are used to influence Western public opinion. Diplomatic initiatives involving other nuclear powers should highlight the potential political and economic consequences of nuclear weapon use and counter Russian strategic messaging.
Lead actor: European governments / NATO
Supporting actors: China, India, Pakistan, Research institutes, universities and think tanks
First step: Reach out bilaterally to key stakeholder
Timeframe: 100 days
KPI: Diplomatic conference with at least one

4. Prepare Wartime Procurement Systems and Standby Industrial Capacity
ID: IN-085
Lab: SCALE
Challenge: NATO member states must establish procurement procedures for a state of war that prioritise speed of decision-making and maintain sufficient industrial capacity on standby to ensure continuous supply once military stockpiles are depleted.
Lead actor: National governments / National defence procurement agencies
Supporting actors: Defence industry and business associations, Research institutes, universities and think tanks
First step: Task external consultants with organizational design in order not to hamper ongoing procurement.
Timeframe: 100 days
KPI: Food for thought paper, discussed in think tanks.

5. Map and prepare Europe's civilian industrial capacity for defense.
ID: IN-086
Lab: SCALE
Challenge: Before building new factories, governments should know which existing production lines, suppliers, technologies and service networks can be activated in a crisis.
Lead actor: National governments, including finance and economy ministries
Supporting actors: Defence industry and business associations, National defence procurement agencies
First step: using existing databases and available information > if required questionnaire for industries to provide missing data (updates)
Timeframe: 100 days
KPI: % of coverage of European industry capacity; clustering of technologies, segments

6. European test, evaluation and high-performance UAS infrastructure
ID: IN-014
Lab: INNOVATION SPEED
Challenge: Europe lacks sufficient, readily accessible locations for legal and realistic testing of BVLOS operations, high-performance UAS, autonomy, swarms, resilient communications and C-UAS detection or effectors. Access can be too slow and costly for SMEs.
Lead actor: Member States, coordinated by the European Commission
Supporting actors: Civil and military aviation authorities, spectrum authorities, ANSPs, EASA, EDA, EUROCONTROL, research bodies, test-site operators and industry
Timeframe: First three sites within 12 months; full network within 24 months
KPI: At least ten connected sites operational; median application-to-test time below 30 days; SMEs participate in at least 40% of supported test campaigns.

7. 10% R&D floor / start-up floor / new tech floor
ID: IN-090
Lab: INNOVATION SPEED
Challenge: Germany spends about 4% of its defence budget on R&D — US more than 10%
Lead actor: National governments, including finance and economy ministries
First step: Write the 10% R&D floor into Einzelplan 14 for the 2028 budget
Timeframe: 12 months
KPI: Implementation

8. Increase state-backed de-risking of defence investments through grants, equity financing and guarantees.
ID: IN-117
Lab: INNOVATION SPEED
Challenge: New financial instruments and innovative approaches are required, potentially increasing the risk borne by public-sector buyers.
Lead actor: National governments, including finance and economy ministries
Supporting actors: NATO and its relevant bodies
First step: Establish a dedicated defence support mechanism in each country covering grants and equity investment; require export credit agencies (ECAs) and guarantee agencies to issue performance guarantees for domestic defence producers.
Timeframe: 12 months
KPI: Amount of grants awarded, equity invested and performance guarantees issued.

9. Strengthen European Defence Industrial Resilience
ID: IN-002
Lab: RESILIENCE
Challenge: Governments and industry should jointly invest in resilient and scalable production capabilities, local content, and reduced dependency on critical external suppliers.
Lead actor: National governments, including finance and economy ministries
Supporting actors: Primes / large Defence Companies, Defence industry and business associations
First step: Map critical defence-platform dependencies and prioritize European second-source qualification.
Timeframe: 12 months
KPI: 100% critical-component visibility and alternative sourcing strategies for ≥80% of high-risk components within 12 months.

10. A real-time low-level air situational picture as critical infrastructure
ID: IN-019
Lab: RESILIENCE
Challenge: Authorities and operators do not yet have a complete, interoperable real-time picture of cooperative traffic in the low-level airspace used by most UAS. Incomplete visibility makes it difficult to distinguish authorised operations from unknown or unlawful activity and can unnecessarily restrict legitimate aviation.
Lead actor: Member States; European Commission and EASA for harmonisation
Supporting actors: EUROCONTROL, SESAR Joint Undertaking, ANSPs, police and defence authorities, general aviation, UAS operators and industry
Timeframe: 12 months for the common specification; 24 months for priority operational coverage
KPI: Interoperable specification adopted; at least 95% of authorised operations in designated areas electronically identifiable; detection-to-classification time below 60 seconds.

11. Unambiguous responsibility and command chains for drone incidents
ID: IN-020
Lab: RESILIENCE
Challenge: Detection, assessment and response responsibilities are distributed across police, armed forces, aviation authorities, ANSPs and infrastructure operators. Unclear handovers and differing procedures delay decisions when response time is critical.
Lead actor: Member States; in Germany, the competent federal ministries together with the Länder
Supporting actors: Federal and state police, armed forces, aviation and spectrum authorities, ANSPs, critical-infrastructure operators and NATO partners
Timeframe: 12 months
KPI: A tested command chain exists for every designated priority site; alarm-to-decision time below five minutes in exercises; deficiencies tracked to closure.

12. Protected airspace, detection duties and lawful response options for critical infrastructure
ID: IN-021
Lab: RESILIENCE
Challenge: Critical-infrastructure operators bear operational consequences of drone incidents but lack uniform detection requirements, reliable access to traffic information and legal certainty on permissible protective measures and escalation to authorities.
Lead actor: Member States and competent national authorities; European Commission for common minimum principles
Supporting actors: Critical-infrastructure operators, police, armed forces, aviation and spectrum authorities, data-protection authorities and C-UAS industry
Timeframe: 12 months for the legal and technical framework; 24 months for priority implementation
KPI: All designated priority sites have an approved detection and response concept; connection to the shared air picture demonstrated; authority response times measured and published in aggregated form.

13. Civil UAS capacity as a preparedness reserve and a graded response model
ID: IN-024
Lab: RESILIENCE
Challenge: Europe's civil UAS sector contains trained personnel, approved operations, aircraft, maintenance capability and operational experience, but this capacity is not consistently integrated into preparedness planning. At the same time, poorly classified drone reports can lead to disproportionate restrictions on lawful operations and weaken public acceptance.
Lead actor: Member States; European Commission and EASA for compatible European principles
Supporting actors: Civil protection authorities, ANSPs, airports, police, armed forces, infrastructure operators, civil UAS operators, maintenance organisations.
Timeframe: 12 months
KPI: Preparedness reserve established with at least 500 qualified operators and documented asset readiness; graded response model adopted at 20 European airports or critical sites; the number and duration of precautionary blanket closures reported annually against a 2026 baseline.

14. Stop trying to read Putin's mind. You will never understand the insanity — focus on facts and take cold, calculated action instead.
ID: IN-040
Lab: RESILIENCE

15. Kill all Russian tourism visas. This is the largest channel for importing Russian spies and saboteurs.
ID: IN-041
Lab: RESILIENCE

16. Localize within the EU. We can't rely on the US — hopefully only a temporary problem, but plan as if it isn't.
ID: IN-042
Lab: RESILIENCE

17. Push Belgium to act on the frozen Russian assets. Find the political will to actually use them.
ID: IN-043
Lab: RESILIENCE

18. Defend the Factories that Sustain the War
ID: IN-071
Lab: RESILIENCE
Challenge: Production facilities, logistics hubs and energy infrastructure will themselves be targets.
Lead actor: National governments
Supporting actors: Industry, civil protection, energy operators
Timeframe: 12 months for plans; 24 months for implementation
KPI: Critical producers able to maintain defined minimum output after simulated infrastructure disruption.

19. Build a European War-Economy Stress Test
ID: IN-074
Lab: RESILIENCE
Challenge: Europe does not systematically test whether industry, infrastructure and logistics could sustain prolonged high-intensity conflict.
Lead actor: European Council / Member States
Supporting actors: EU Commission, NATO, EDA, industry, transport and energy sectors
Timeframe: First exercise within 12 months
KPI: Classified and unclassified gap assessment plus funded national action plans within 100 days after each exercise.

20. Include technology and supply-chain failure scenarios in critical-infrastructure resilience exercises.
ID: IN-094
Lab: RESILIENCE
Challenge: Resilience planning may not sufficiently test the ability to replace unavailable components, materials or technologies.
Lead actor: National governments, including finance and economy ministries
Supporting actors: National ministries of defence, Research institutes, universities and think tanks
First step: Add a technology-substitution scenario to upcoming resilience exercises.
Timeframe: 12 months
KPI: At least one replacement, testing and qualification pathway successfully demonstrated during an exercise.