Military Drones in Europe: The European Defense Market and the Spread of Military UAV Technology

This report provides the critical insights that national governments and defense companies need in order to navigate the European military drone landscape and offers a guide to their strategic planning and investment. Observing the international proliferation of military Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), also known as drones, the report puts together a comprehensive overview of military drones in Europe to conceptualize the diffusion of UAV technology and the competition dynamics on the European defense market. This political-strategic comparative analysis identifies and qualitatively assesses the key developments in the European military drone landscape. The report puts forward that despite the continuing proliferation of military drones in Europe, significant differences in military drone capabilities persist among European countries. Importantly, no European indigenous advanced drone has achieved full operational capability yet. In this respect, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the European Union (EU), each via its own institutional logic, act as facilitators of the military technology diffusion through various enabling, funding, and networking mechanisms. The commercial sector further animates the European defense market in the category of smaller UAVs. The next-generation UAV technology driven by the increasing level of autonomy and the concepts of manned-unmanned teaming and swarming, together with the development of counterdrone systems, will characterize the future drone race on the European defense market. The report proceeds in three steps. First, it maps the military drone capabilities in selected seventeen European countries with respect to all three main classes of drones: advanced, tactical, and small. The resulting drone clubs are based on countries’ procurement strategies and defense cooperation patterns. Second, the report adds an institutional layer to the analysis. It assesses the strengths and weaknesses of both NATO and the EU in terms of existing institutional channels central to the development of UAV capability, especially in the context of the emerging EU-wide regulatory framework and its growing role in the defense and security domain. Third, the concluding analysis of future trends in the military UAV technology further elaborates on drone warfare and defense cooperation in Europe.