Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Arms Makers’ Day last month, which featured a display of 56 types of weapons, including 31 drones – long-range drones, FPVs, bombers, reconnaissance drones, strike kamikaze drones, and interceptors – as well as 7 missiles, 4 electronic warfare systems, 6 ground robotic systems, one air defence turret, 3 unmanned naval systems, and 4 specialised armoured vehicles | Photo: Press Service Of The President Of Ukraine/YPV.2026
The European Commission has launched a call for founding members of a new EU-Ukraine Drone Alliance aimed at strengthening European drone and counter-drone capabilities in response to growing security concerns and repeated violations of European Union member states’ airspace.
The call, published by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Defence Industry and Space on May 5, is open until May 25. The initiative is intended to bring together drone manufacturers, innovators, startups, scaleups and military end-users from the European Union, European Economic Area and Ukraine.
According to the Commission, the Alliance is expected to support wider European efforts to develop drone and counter-drone systems as part of the EU’s Defence Readiness Roadmap 2030. The roadmap identified drones and counter-drones as a priority capability area because of increasing security threats facing Europe.
The Commission said recent airspace violations involving unmanned aerial vehicles demonstrated the need for “a flexible, agile and state of the art European capacity to counter unmanned aerial vehicles.”
The new alliance will be industry-led and will work alongside a member state-led Priority Capability Coalition focused on drone and counter-drone systems. The Commission said the arrangement is intended to help deliver practical defence capabilities while improving cooperation between European countries and Ukraine.
The initiative also reflects growing European interest in lessons learned from the war in Ukraine, where drones and counter-drone systems have played a central role in military operations. The Commission said a stronger European drone sector should build on Ukrainian experience in linking research and development with industrial production and scalable manufacturing.
“This is why the European Commission, in close cooperation with Ukraine, is launching the EU-Ukraine Drone Alliance,” the Commission stated in the call for proposals.
The Commission said the alliance would include “system manufacturers and innovators, including startups and scaleups, as well as end-users from the EU, EEA EFTA States and Ukraine, with the intention to contribute to ongoing European efforts to build a comprehensive drone and counter-drone capability.”
Eligible applicants must be legal entities with experience in European or Ukrainian drone and counter-drone sectors and must commit to active participation in the alliance. Prospective candidates can find the application here.
The first selected members will form the alliance’s inaugural board and will help determine its future priorities and activities.
“The objective of this first call is to select the founding members of the Alliance, who will form its first Board that will be able to shape its activities and priorities,” the Commission said.
The Commission added that it would support the establishment and operation of the alliance in cooperation with Ukraine.
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