{"id":13462,"date":"2026-04-29T14:06:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T14:06:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/13462\/"},"modified":"2026-04-29T14:06:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T14:06:07","slug":"belgian-defense-minister-meeting-with-firms-lined-up-for-slice-of-1-3b-counter-drone-pie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/13462\/","title":{"rendered":"Belgian defense minister meeting with firms lined up for slice of $1.3B counter-drone pie"},"content":{"rendered":"

MILAN and BELFAST \u2014 A host of international defense firms have expressed interest in securing new orders available under a just-launched \u20ac1.1 billion ($1.3 billion) Belgian <\/a>tender for counter-drone systems, with Belgium\u2019s defense minister taking meetings with US firms during a visit this week.<\/p>\n

The lucrative effort, which comes in the wake of unidentified drone flights near Belgian military bases late last year, was formally approved by Brussels earlier this month, but saw the formal tender released on April 21. The tender would cover 10 years, with an option for two additional years.<\/p>\n

In response to questions from Breaking Defense, a Ministry of Defense spokesperson said that Defense Minister Theo Francken met with BAE Systems and Shield AI while in the US this week. American firms Anduril, CACI and Sentry View Systems, as well as Sweden\u2019s Saab and Germany\u2019s Hensoldt, have all expressed interest in pitching their designs, per the spokesperson, who added that Brussels plans on advancing \u201con the matter urgently.\u201d However, the spokesperson declined to share an exact timeframe for production contracts to be signed.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Francken spoke directly about the tender during a discussion<\/a> on transatlantic security developments organized by the Atlantic Council think tank.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need [more] counter-drone and drone systems, we bought small capabilities for \u20ac50 million, but we have a big \u20ac1 billion contract for more coming up, [as part] of an innovative project,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The \u20ac50 million initiative Francken mentioned was announced<\/a> in December and involved the purchase of Saab-made surveillance radars and Australian drone guns, introduced after illegal drone activity was recorded over the Klein Brogel base, which reportedly<\/a> houses US tactical nuclear weapons.<\/p>\n

The newer, larger counter-drone package is envisioned to include brand-new, durable systems, as Francken noted that the country has no desire to invest in systems that sit on the shelf or \u201care unusable after two months\u201d due to the rapid pace of development in drone technologies.<\/p>\n

As detailed by the Belgian Ministry of Defence spokesperson, the tender will further combine both active and passive measures, including detection sensors and a command and control system to link all effectors. \u00a0<\/p>\n

According to an online translation from an announcement published by Francken\u2019s office in March, covering approval of the project<\/a>, the main \u201cintention\u201d is to forge partnerships across EU, NATO member states, and Ukraine, as well as Belgian firms \u201caiming to retain, at least in part, the intellectual property rights (IP) to future joint developments.\u201d <\/p>\n

It also notes \u201cThis partnership must provide for a wide range of militarily deployable systems: fixed installations for critical military and maritime infrastructure; semi-fixed modular systems that can be moved for extended periods; platform-based solutions for vehicles or ships; and lightweight,\u00a0manportable systems for short-range tactical deployment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last year, the Belgian government committed<\/a> to buying 10 National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS) from Norway\u2019s Kongsberg via a joint procurement with the Netherlands. The first of those systems is expected to arrive in the second half of 2027. <\/p>\n

A $1.3 billion spend on counter-drone systems would represent a giant expansion for NATO\u2019s home country; Belgium\u2019s entire defense budget amounted<\/a> to $14.5 billion in 2025, so even if spread out over 10 years the new tender would represent a true increase. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MILAN and BELFAST \u2014 A host of international defense firms have expressed interest in securing new orders available…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13463,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[7,269,9186,834,69,662,451],"class_list":["post-13462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-belgium","tag-belgium","tag-business","tag-counter-drone","tag-drones","tag-europe","tag-global","tag-nato"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@be\/116488384443064673","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13462"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13462\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}