NATO has launched a new initiative committing allies to invest over 40 billion dollars in counter-drone capabilities over the next five years, alongside a pledge to train five times as many drone operators in their armed forces by the end of 2027, the alliance has announced.
Secretary General Mark Rutte unveiled the NATO Drone Edge initiative at the Defence Industry Forum in Ankara, telling delegates that “drones have fundamentally altered, as we all know, the character of modern warfare. And they have become a decisive factor on the battlefield. This is clear from what we see in Ukraine, in the Middle East, and across the Alliance. Allies themselves have seen repeated drone incursions.”
In response, he said, NATO is rapidly expanding its ability to deploy and operate drones at scale while building robust counter-drone defences to detect, identify and neutralise them, describing the approach as how the alliance protects “our one billion people against the full range of drone threats.”
NATO will support allies in delivering the commitments through several mechanisms, beginning with the launch of a counter-drone marketplace aimed at helping procure counter-drone capabilities at scale and speed. The NATO Support and Procurement Agency is providing contracts worth hundreds of millions of euros to procure surveillance drones for allies, and the alliance is increasing its drone training capabilities, including through the NATO Flight Training Europe project, which Finland, France and Sweden joined at the forum, bringing the total number of participating allies to 20, with 16 flight training centres across eight nations.
“Together, we are building a drone-ready Alliance,” Rutte said. “We are leveraging the latest innovative technologies, investing in our transatlantic defence industries, and learning real-world lessons from the battlefield in Ukraine.”
The Drone Edge launch opened a further sequence of announcements at the forum, with NATO Deputy Secretary General Radmila Shekerinska to outline additional initiatives between the alliance and industry covering space and surveillance, strike capabilities and integrated air and missile defence.
