National ministries of defence
1. Binding multi-annual offtake instead of isolated orders
ID: IN-006
Lab: SCALE
Challenge: Manufacturers cannot invest reliably in tooling, staff, component stocks and quality systems on the basis of isolated and unpredictable orders. Capacity therefore remains close to prototype scale and unit costs stay high.
Lead actor: National ministries of defence and procurement agencies; in Germany, BMVg and BAAINBw
Supporting actors: Ministries of finance, national parliaments, European Commission, EDA, end users and industry
Timeframe: 12 months
KPI: At least 70% of relevant national UAS and C-UAS procurement by contract value is covered by multi-annual frameworks with binding minimum quantities.
2. Create a European Mass-Drone Order
ID: IN-055
Lab: SCALE
Challenge: Manufacturers will not build 20× capacity without predictable demand.
Lead actor: National Ministries of Defence / procurement agencies
Supporting actors: EU Commission, EDA, industry, Ukraine
Timeframe: 100 days for framework; 12 months for first mass orders
KPI: Contracted annual production capacity at least 10× current procurement volume, with a pathway to 20× within 24 months.
3. Buy “Good Enough” at Scale
ID: IN-056
Lab: SCALE
Challenge: Procurement often optimises individual-system performance rather than aggregate battlefield effect.
Lead actor: National Ministries of Defence
Supporting actors: Armed forces, procurement agencies, EDA
Timeframe: 12 months
KPI: At least 25% of unmanned-system procurement volume acquired through expendable-system rules.
4. Standardize military logistics requirements across Europe.
ID: IN-087
Lab: SCALE
Challenge: Industry can scale much faster if countries procure common platforms in meaningful volumes rather than many national variants.
Lead actor: National ministries of defence
Supporting actors: NATO and its relevant bodies, Defence SMEs and start-ups
First step: collection of existing requirements from different defense areas for same solution demand to identify differences and communalities (potential)
Timeframe: 24 months
KPI: % reduction of individual requirements and transfer to common platform / criteria
5. Create a fast-track qualification process for proven commercial technology.
ID: IN-088
Lab: SCALE
Challenge: If technology already works reliably in thousands of civilian vehicles, we should be able to evaluate and adapt it for military logistics in months rather than starting another multi-year development cycle.
Lead actor: National ministries of defence
Supporting actors: NATO and its relevant bodies, Defence industry and business associations
First step: mapping of existing processes and identification of steps / areas already covered by civil approval process / experiences
Timeframe: 24 months
KPI: % reduction of qualification time in process
6. Capacity Contracting - Procurement via Pay-for-Capacity contracts
ID: IN-089
Lab: SCALE
Challenge: Procurement agencies, procurement law
Lead actor: National ministries of defence
Supporting actors: National governments, including finance and economy ministries
First step: Adapt the idea of capacity contracting: Gov't pays for the build up of production capacity in defence
Timeframe: 100 days
KPI: Use of capacity contracts
7. Prioritise distributed production, joint ventures and appropriate technology transfer, with facilities designed to maintain supply continuity under attack. Establish a joint process for continuously upgrading systems using operational feedback from Ukraine within a protected, decentralised production ecosystem with redundant capabilities.
ID: IN-129
Lab: SCALE
Challenge: Ukraine has demonstrated rapid innovation and adaptation under combat conditions, while European industry offers substantial industrial capacity and access to capital. These strengths remain insufficiently integrated.
Lead actor: Ukrainian and European ministries of defence; European Commission (DG DEFIS)
Supporting actors: Ukrainian defence manufacturers; European defence primes and SMEs; European Defence Agency; EU Member States; relevant national export-credit and investment institutions
First step: Continue the existing business-to-business cooperation track.
Timeframe: Other
KPI: Ukraine has reliable partners in European states, with joint production capacity helping Europe and Ukraine prepare for next-generation warfare.
8. Drive Innovation and Adoption of Autonomous Systems
ID: IN-004
Lab: INNOVATION SPEED
Challenge: The future battlefield will increasingly rely on unmanned and autonomous systems.
Lead actor: National ministries of defence
Supporting actors: Armed forces and operational commands, Primes / large Defence Companies
First step: Select one military logistics mission and execute a 90-day capability sprint with operators and industry.
Timeframe: 90 days
KPI: One operational demonstration completed, followed by a documented adopt / adapt / stop decision and scale-up roadmap.
9. 30-day fast-track procurement for operationally validated systems
ID: IN-012
Lab: INNOVATION SPEED
Challenge: Procurement cycles measured in years are incompatible with unmanned-systems development cycles measured in months or weeks. Systems risk being technically outdated before first delivery.
Lead actor: National ministries of defence and procurement agencies
Supporting actors: European Commission for model provisions, armed forces, public safety authorities, EDA, industry and audit bodies
Timeframe: 12 months
KPI: Award decision within 30 days of a complete validated request and contract-to-first-delivery below 90 days in at least 80% of fast-track cases.
10. Protected operational feedback loop between users and industry
ID: IN-016
Lab: INNOVATION SPEED
Challenge: Manufacturers often receive structured operational feedback too late to support rapid improvement. Security classification, fragmented reporting and unclear data rights inhibit learning from deployment.
Lead actor: National ministries of defence and armed forces
Supporting actors: Security authorities, EDA, Ukrainian partners, procurement agencies and qualified manufacturers
Timeframe: 100 days for a pilot; 12 months for operational implementation
KPI: Feedback reaches authorised manufacturers within 14 days; at least four validated product iterations per selected system per year; security incidents tracked to closure.
11. Single entry point and rapid transition budget for SMEs
ID: IN-018
Lab: INNOVATION SPEED
Challenge: SMEs and start-ups face fragmented contacts, uncertain response times and a funding gap between demonstrator, operational evaluation and first series order.
Lead actor: National ministries of defence and procurement agencies; in Germany, BMVg and BAAINBw
Supporting actors: Ministries of finance, armed forces, public safety users, innovation agencies, European Commission and industry associations
Timeframe: 100 days for the entry point; 12 months for the budget pathway
KPI: At least 95% of enquiries receive a routing decision within 30 days; at least 5% of relevant procurement funding by value assigned to competitive SME and scale-up pathways; at least 30% of relevant contracts by number awarded to SMEs or scale-ups.
12. Stop chasing the most innovative product. Innovation never stops — but we need assets in the warehouses and on the training grounds yesterday.
ID: IN-034
Lab: INNOVATION SPEED
13. Run a rotating drone stockpile. Use drones for training on a constant rotation (they're disposable) and continuously restock with the newest models.
ID: IN-036
Lab: INNOVATION SPEED
14. Give mission capability teams authority, ownership, and budget
ID: IN-045
Lab: INNOVATION SPEED
Challenge: Move away from temporary IT projects toward persistent teams organized around operational outcomes such as readiness, logistics, maintenance, force generation, medical support, and C2.
Lead actor: National ministries of defence — designated mission/capability owner
Supporting actors: Armed forces and operational commands; finance and economy ministries; procurement agencies; NATO bodies; major manufacturers; SMEs and start-ups
First step: Select three priority missions and issue a charter naming the operational owner, product lead, acquisition, security and data leads, ring-fenced budget, baseline outcome and first release date.
Timeframe: Team charters within 90 days; first operational increment within 6 months
KPI: Three teams are chartered and funded. Each has a ranked backlog, baseline mission KPI and a user-tested release within 6 months.
15. Treat data as an operational defence capability
ID: IN-048
Lab: INNOVATION SPEED
Challenge: Move beyond application-owned data toward authoritative data products with named owners, semantics, quality standards, classification, lineage, APIs, and defined consumers.
Lead actor: National ministry of defence Chief Data Officer or equivalent data authority
Supporting actors: Armed forces and operational commands; NATO and NCIA; procurement agencies; research institutes; major manufacturers; SMEs and start-ups
First step: Name accountable owners for the first five mission-critical data products and publish product cards covering source, semantics, quality, classification, lineage, access, API and consumers.
Timeframe: Owners and product cards within 90 days; first data products live within 12 months
KPI: Five governed data products are live. Each has a named owner, approved quality thresholds, documented lineage and at least two operational or system consumers.
16. Replace one-off accreditation with continuous digital assurance
ID: IN-049
Lab: INNOVATION SPEED
Challenge: Maintain security rigor while eliminating repeated multi-month accreditation cycles for every software release. Use reusable controls, automated evidence, SBOMs, signed artifacts, policy-as-code, vulnerability monitoring, and inherited certifications.
Lead actor: National defence security accreditation authorities
Supporting actors: NATO Office of Security and NCIA; national cyber authorities; procurement agencies; armed forces; major manufacturers; SMEs and start-ups
First step: Select one shared DevSecOps pipeline and three low- or medium-risk services to pilot inherited controls, SBOMs, signed artifacts, automated evidence and delta-based reassessment.
Timeframe: Pilot starts within 6 months; results assessed within 12 months
KPI: Median release-authorization time falls by at least 50%; at least 80% of control evidence is generated automatically; critical unresolved findings do not increase.
17. Create a funded pathway from experimentation to operational scale
ID: IN-050
Lab: INNOVATION SPEED
Challenge: Eliminate the recurring prototype → demonstration → applause → abandonment cycle. Establish explicit transition mechanisms from experimentation into operational capability.
Lead actor: National ministries of defence — capability and acquisition leadership
Supporting actors: Finance ministries; procurement agencies; armed forces; DG DEFIS; EDA; NATO DIANA and NCIA; Ukrainian defence authorities; primes; SMEs and start-ups
First step: Require every new experiment to name an operational sponsor, success threshold, transition authority, target production environment and reserved next-phase funding before work begins.
Timeframe: Apply to the next funding call or within 6 months; scale decision within 60 days of the trial
KPI: All pilots have a transition plan and timely scale decision. At least 30% of pilots that meet their success threshold enter funded fielding within 12 months.
18. Retire technical debt instead of endlessly integrating around it
ID: IN-052
Lab: INNOVATION SPEED
Challenge: Digital transformation cannot mean continuously adding APIs, middleware, data platforms, AI layers, and dashboards around obsolete systems.
Lead actor: National ministry of defence CIO or digital transformation authority
Supporting actors: Armed forces and operational commands; finance ministries; procurement agencies; NATO bodies; incumbent suppliers; research institutes
First step: Inventory mission-critical applications and classify each as Retain, Modernize, Encapsulate, Replace or Retire, with owner, risk, total cost, dependencies, funding need and target date.
Timeframe: Classification within 6 months; funding decisions within 12 months; initial retirement results within 18 months
KPI: The full mission-critical estate is classified. The ten highest technical-debt risks have funded disposition dates, and the number of unsupported systems falls by at least 10% within 18 months.
19. Measure digital transformation by capability velocity
ID: IN-054
Lab: INNOVATION SPEED
Challenge: Replace IT-centric success measures such as systems delivered, cloud percentage, or program milestones with measures of operational improvement and delivery speed.
Lead actor: National ministries of defence — senior leadership, capability planning and CIO
Supporting actors: Finance and economy ministries; armed forces; procurement agencies; NATO bodies; EDA; research institutes and think tanks
First step: Agree six common capability-velocity measures, baseline every major digital portfolio and require a quarterly scorecard with a named owner for each exception.
Timeframe: Definitions within 90 days; first scorecard within 6 months; improvement review at 12 months
KPI: All major digital programs report the same measures. Median requirement-to-fielding time improves by at least 25% against baseline, with recovery plans for missed targets.
20. 30-Day Combat-Proven Procurement
ID: IN-061
Lab: INNOVATION SPEED
Challenge: Technology can become obsolete while conventional procurement is still running.
Lead actor: National Ministries of Defence / procurement agencies
Supporting actors: Armed forces, industry, Ukraine
Timeframe: 100 days for legal mechanism
KPI: Decision within 30 days; first delivery within 90 days.
21. Create Permanent Frontline Feedback Teams
ID: IN-063
Lab: INNOVATION SPEED
Challenge: European developers lack systematic access to current battlefield experience.
Lead actor: Participating Ministries of Defence
Supporting actors: Ukraine, EDA, industry
Timeframe: 100 days
KPI: Operational feedback reaches designated European development teams within 14 days.
22. Prototype-to-10,000 Fast Lane
ID: IN-065
Lab: INNOVATION SPEED
Challenge: Europe can fund prototypes but struggles to industrialise successful systems quickly.
Lead actor: Ministries of Defence + EU Commission
Supporting actors: EIB / financial institutions, industry, EDA
Timeframe: 12 months
KPI: Successful prototype to first 1,000 units in no more than 90 days; 10,000-unit capacity within 180 days.
23. Give Brigades Their Own Innovation Budgets
ID: IN-066
Lab: INNOVATION SPEED
Challenge: Procurement authority is too distant from users confronting rapidly changing problems.
Lead actor: National Ministries of Defence
Supporting actors: Armed forces, procurement authorities
Timeframe: 100 days for pilot
KPI: Brigade-level purchase decision within 14 days inside the delegated ceiling.
24. Replace one-off pilot purchases with rolling multi-year (3–5 year) framework contracts for drones as consumables. Build in a mandatory technology-refresh clause ("buy a technology roadmap, not a frozen configuration") and an "ever-warm" surge clause: baseline readiness funding and pre-positioned components so output can scale 1× → 3× → 10× within weeks.
ID: IN-097
Lab: INNOVATION SPEED
Challenge: Without a predictable order horizon, companies cannot invest in production lines, people or long-lead components (fibre, motors, optics, thermal sensors). Subsidies alone do not build factories; guaranteed multi-year demand does. Surge capacity cannot be created after a crisis starts.
Lead actor: National ministries of defence
Supporting actors: National defence procurement agencies, European Commission, particularly DG DEFIS
First step: MoDs publish a 3-year demand outlook for short-range drones and counter-drone effectors. They sign at least one rolling framework agreement with refresh and surge clauses, financed through national financial insturments and national budgets.
Timeframe: 12 months
KPI: At least 5 rolling frameworks with a ≥ 3-year horizon are signed in Member States by Q4 2027. Technology refresh ≤ 12 months is contractually guaranteed. A surge test proves 3× output within 8 weeks.
25. Create exchange platforms for national innovation laboratories.
ID: IN-109
Lab: INNOVATION SPEED
Challenge: National innovation laboratories work on similar challenges and solutions in parallel, despite limited personnel resources.
Lead actor: National ministries of defence
Supporting actors: Research institutes, universities and think tanks
First step: Evaluate existing platforms and bring the different platforms together.
Timeframe: 100 days
KPI: First exchange has taken place; list of activities generated.
26. Establish permanent military engineering, applied R&D and small-batch production capabilities within selected formations, supported by shared specialist facilities. Enable user-led repairs, equipment improvements and quality-controlled production of approved spare parts and communications consumables in cooperation with manufacturers.
ID: IN-122
Lab: INNOVATION SPEED
Challenge: Reliance on external manufacturers for technical expertise, repairs and production can prolong equipment downtime and delay improvements. Informal field modifications cannot replace permanent trained teams, technical authority, facilities, delegated budgets and structured industrial cooperation.
Lead actor: National ministries of defence
Supporting actors: Armed forces and operational commands; Defence SMEs and start-ups
First step: Within 100 days, nominate three military formations and one shared engineering hub; appoint technical teams and authorities; identify priority repair and supply problems; allocate facilities and budgets; agree manufacturer cooperation on training, technical data, licensing, testing and quality assurance.
Timeframe: 12 months
KPI: Three staffed military engineering teams and one shared hub operational; at least six documented user-initiated engineering or repair projects completed; one approved limited spare-part or communications-consumable production capability evaluated. Track repair turnaround, return-to-service rates, repeat failures and component lead times.
27. Establish permanent unmanned-systems schools and centres of excellence with funded Ukrainian partnerships, providing coordinated training for operators, engineers, maintenance personnel, instructors and evaluators, and systematically integrating operational lessons into training, testing and equipment support.
ID: IN-124
Lab: INNOVATION SPEED
Challenge: One-off training visits and static curricula cannot sustain rapidly changing unmanned-systems expertise. Ukrainian battlefield knowledge is distributed across institutions and requires structured, funded cooperation and systematic assessment before integration into national training and procurement processes.
Lead actor: National ministries of defence
Supporting actors: Ukrainian defence authorities and armed forces; Research institutes, universities and think tanks
First step: Within 100 days, designate a national host institution and identify two Ukrainian partners; establish a funded cooperation framework; define competency profiles and a joint curriculum board linked to military engineering and procurement trials; launch instructor development and quarterly lessons reviews.
Timeframe: 12 months
KPI: One nationally accredited programme, two instructor-development cohorts and at least 30 assessed instructors within 12 months; two jointly reviewed curriculum updates and quarterly lessons assessments; at least three documented cases where validated lessons improve training, equipment evaluation or maintenance.
28. Require a protected feedback channel from the field to the manufacturer on every fielded system.
ID: IN-130
Lab: INNOVATION SPEED
Challenge: A result or a fault found in the field reaches the people who can learn from it months later, filtered, summarised by someone who was not there, or never. Classification, reporting chains and unclear data rights are each a reason not to pass the lesson on. Nobody is measured on how fast the lesson travels.
Lead actor: National ministries of defence
Supporting actors: Armed forces and operational commands; European Defence Agency
First step: Write a direct-to-manufacturer feedback channel into the next counter-drone contract as a delivery condition at no extra charge: one scan on the hardware, routed to the engineers who built the system.
Timeframe: 100 days
KPI: Feedback reaches the authorised manufacturer within 14 days; at least 4 validated product iterations per selected system per year; every security incident tracked to closure.
29. Provide a bookable test range with a current-threat target fleet, used as the pre-award test.
ID: IN-131
Lab: INNOVATION SPEED
Challenge: Testing happens when an exercise is scheduled, not when the product is ready. Ranges are built for the army's calendar, so a supplier tests against the target that was available rather than the target it must beat. The result is a demonstration, not evidence.
Lead actor: National ministries of defence
Supporting actors: National defence procurement agencies; European Defence Agency
First step: Reserve one range per region for supplier booking and put a threat fleet on site: fibre-optic, RF-silent and autonomous targets. Use it as the test before award, so a pass replaces a demonstration.
Timeframe: 24 months
KPI: At least one range in each region bookable by qualified suppliers; a system passes pre-award testing on the current-threat fleet; demonstration events fall by half on the participating programmes.
30. Establish a standing quarterly user-industry board with authority to change requirements.
ID: IN-133
Lab: INNOVATION SPEED
Challenge: Requirements are written once and then defended. Operators and makers meet at conferences, not in a room with the power to change a specification, so a lesson proven in one country arrives in the next as a briefing.
Lead actor: National ministries of defence
Supporting actors: Defence industry and business associations; Ukrainian defence authorities and armed forces
First step: One ministry hosts the first session with three fielded systems on the agenda and one question per system: what must change, and who signs it.
Timeframe: 100 days
KPI: Four minuted meetings per year; at least one signed specification change per meeting, each traced to a dated field report.
31. Develop medical battalions that include Ukrainian personnel.
ID: IN-039
Lab: RESILIENCE
32. Build the Cheap Layer of European Air Defence
ID: IN-070
Lab: RESILIENCE
Challenge: High-end interceptors are too scarce and expensive to defeat mass low-cost drones sustainably.
Lead actor: National Ministries of Defence
Supporting actors: NATO, EU, industry, Ukraine
Timeframe: 24 months
KPI: Majority of low-cost UAV threats in exercises defeated without high-end missile interceptors.
33. Establish an MoD-led Eastern Flank programme to use existing underground fibre-optic infrastructure for defence preparedness, border monitoring and unmanned mission support, including authorised sensor connectivity, infrastructure access agreements and continuity of civilian services.
ID: IN-120
Lab: RESILIENCE
Challenge: Technology providers cannot independently secure national infrastructure access, military requirements or adoption authority. Existing fibre networks may lack agreed access rights, sufficient capacity, approved connections and funded maintenance. Without a government-led programme, separate demonstrations and purchases risk remaining unintegrated and unsupported.
Lead actor: National ministries of defence
Supporting actors: National governments, including finance and economy ministries; Armed forces and operational commands
First step: Within 100 days of programme approval, appoint an MoD sponsor and coordinating body; select a pilot area and monitoring applications; convene infrastructure owners, military users and suppliers; negotiate access, service priority and civilian continuity; approve a funded trial charter with defined technical authority and adoption milestones.
Timeframe: 24 months
KPI: By month 12: agreed access framework, designated authorities, approved pilot budget and initial component evaluation. By month 24: independently assessed integrated pilot covering at least three monitoring or mission-support applications, measuring availability, restoration time, integration effort, maintenance and whole-life cost while verifying civilian-service continuity.