{"id":486058,"date":"2025-10-09T16:13:29","date_gmt":"2025-10-09T16:13:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/486058\/"},"modified":"2025-10-09T16:13:29","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T16:13:29","slug":"europe-moves-to-unlock-ukraines-drone-insights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/486058\/","title":{"rendered":"Europe moves to unlock Ukraine\u2019s drone insights"},"content":{"rendered":"

MILAN \u2014 Western countries scrambling to counter rising aerial threats should move beyond the simple stockpiling of countermeasures and adopt Ukraine\u2019s faster, cheaper and battle-tested drone warfare model, experts say.<\/p>\n

At the Warsaw Security Forum, organized in the Polish capital on Sept. 29-30, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy proposed to his NATO partners that they build a \u201cjoint, truly reliable shield\u201d against Russian aerial threats, stating that he stood ready to offer advice.<\/p>\n

Several European countries have recently become the target of suspicious, unidentified drone activities near critical infrastructure, which has prompted the European Union to flirt with just such an idea: a defensive \u201cwall\u201d against drones<\/a> that would build on Kyiv\u2019s amassed knowledge.<\/p>\n

Experts say that while foreign militaries are not required to copy all Ukrainian tactics, they should still integrate key know-how shared with them, starting with the ability to build defensive systems quickly.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one should be thinking they can store millions of drones [or countermeasures], they can\u2019t just store them in a warehouse, and even if they did, they shouldn\u2019t expect them to be useful given how quickly things are evolving,\u201d Scott Boston, senior defense analyst at RAND, said.<\/p>\n

RELATED\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Ukrainian way is cheaper, faster and being live-tested against an active adversary, as well as the insights from the electromagnetic spectrum are hugely relevant, since Russia is frequently adjusting and introducing new electronic-warfare techniques,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

In a recent speech, Zelenskyy reported that Kyiv\u2019s potential in the drone and missile production sector will reach $35 billion in 2026, with approximately 40% of the weapons currently deployed on the frontlines manufactured locally or with the participation of local companies.<\/p>\n

One area of knowledge transfer that would benefit Western forces is the operationalization of counter-drone systems, both at a tactical and higher-command level.<\/p>\n

That means integrating counter-drone capabilities into existing military units, as some countries have already begun doing, and spreading the responsibility to engage drones throughout the force.<\/p>\n

Federico Borsari, non-resident fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis, notes that Ukraine has gained experience about optimal combinations of sensors and interceptors, such as low-cost guided rockets, wide-band jamming and anti-aircraft guns cued by a multispectral grid of sensors.<\/p>\n

Knowledge transfer<\/p>\n

Following drone incursions last month, both Poland and Denmark opted to call in Ukrainian experts to help them train their troops better in responding to these incidents.<\/p>\n

According to Yevgeniya Gaber, non-resident senior fellow at Atlantic Council, such visits constitute a practice that could become more widespread as a means to transfer knowledge. <\/p>\n

\u201cNo simulation, exercise or observation can replicate what happens when thousands of drones, missiles, and EW systems operate simultaneously in a real war environment \u2013 for operational learning, Ukrainian instructors and drone operations can help to train [other] European forces,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She highlighted that it will also be crucial to include visits to Ukraine so European drone apprentices gain a concrete understanding of the way counter-drone systems operate in combat. <\/p>\n

In the short term, experts say this partnership could play out through direct industrial cooperation and investing into Ukrainian capabilities to ramp up production of proven systems. <\/p>\n

For European companies, accessing Ukrainian performance data gleaned from combat engagements will be hugely valuable for tweaking their own technologies, said Borsari.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut for this to happen, there need to be incentives in place regarding joint market opportunities and the safeguard of intellectual property,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The EU recently committed to spending a total of \u20ac2 billion on drones with Ukraine, a potential win-win situation that would allow the war-torn country to scale up its manufacturing and the bloc to benefit from the technology.<\/p>\n

Their collaboration could also entail co-developing new systems with Ukrainian engineers or investing in them at the design stage, Gaber said.<\/p>\n

Things are already moving in that direction. Denmark and Ukraine signed an agreement on Oct. 6 that will allow Ukrainian defense firms to set up joint production in the Nordic nation, a move that is meant to come with technology exchange baked in.<\/p>\n

Elisabeth Gosselin-Malo is a Europe correspondent for Defense News. She covers a wide range of topics related to military procurement and international security, and specializes in reporting on the aviation sector. She is based in Milan, Italy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MILAN \u2014 Western countries scrambling to counter rising aerial threats should move beyond the simple stockpiling of countermeasures…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":486059,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7654],"tags":[15016,5606,141415,5607,365,5602,2595,2000,299,1699,657,55631],"class_list":{"0":"post-486058","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ukraine","8":"tag-circulated-c4isrnet","9":"tag-circulated-defense-news","10":"tag-counter-drone","11":"tag-defense-news","12":"tag-denmark","13":"tag-dn-dnr","14":"tag-drones","15":"tag-eu","16":"tag-europe","17":"tag-european-union","18":"tag-ukraine","19":"tag-unmanned"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115345097316046269","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=486058"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486058\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/486059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=486058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=486058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=486058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}