Europe is finally getting serious about drones, just in time

Drones have become an inseparable part of Europe’s security reality, especially for the Eastern European and the Baltic States.

This is no longer a theoretical discussion about future technologies or a distant war “somewhere in Ukraine”. Many Lithuanians would recall the end of May 2026, when reports of a possible drone entering Lithuanian airspace led to public warnings and, for the first time since independence, people in Vilnius and eastern Lithuania were urged to seek shelter.

The lesson was clear: drones are no longer auxiliary military technology. Cheap FPV drones destroy tanks, artillery systems and radars worth millions. They are used for reconnaissance, logistics, infrastructure attacks and psychological pressure. Most importantly, drones have changed the economics of warfare. Success increasingly depends not on the most expensive platforms but on the ability to rapidly produce, adapt and deploy large numbers of relatively inexpensive systems.

For a long time, Europe viewed drones mainly through the lens of civil aviation and regulation. This is now changing.

In spring 2026, the European Commission presented its Action Plan on Drone and Counter-Drone Security. The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), in a study group in which I participated in, has prepared its Opinion on the initiative. For the first time, drones are being treated as a matter of security, defence, industrial policy and technological sovereignty all together.

The challenge is no longer technological alone as today drones are instruments of hybrid warfare. They can be used to monitor critical infrastructure, disrupt energy systems, conduct intelligence gathering, violate airspace and exert psychological pressure. 

The EESC Opinion rightly underlines that the military and security dimensions of drone threats are especially relevant for the Eastern Flank states, where hybrid threats, airspace violations and infrastructure vulnerabilities are already part of everyday reality. It calls for dedicated EU support, targeted funding and specific protection mechanisms for these regions.

The current European security architecture was designed for a different era. It was not built for mass drone warfare.

Today, drones affect virtually every sector: defence, energy, telecommunications, maritime infrastructure, border protection and civil aviation. At the same time, economic logic is changing. Multi-million-euro air defence systems are increasingly used to intercept drones costing only a few hundred euros. This equation is difficult to sustain.

Europe also faces structural weaknesses. Drone technology evolves every few months, while European regulatory systems and procurement procedures often move in years. Europe remains heavily dependent on external supply chains, particularly China, for critical drone components.

This is why Europe must move beyond regulation and embrace what might be called a wartime innovation mindset.

Encouragingly, the EESC Opinion supports a more ambitious industrial approach. It calls for scaling up production, accelerating innovation cycles, strengthening SMEs and start-ups, expanding testing environments and creating faster pathways from concept to industrial-scale production.

The Opinion also supports addressing risks relating to balloons and balloon-based airborne systems, including surveillance, disruption and hybrid threats.

This is an area where Europe still needs to move faster. Our Opinion highlights also the strategic importance of software, AI, autonomous capabilities and secure data integration. But Europe must also accelerate experimentation, simplify procurement and think more seriously about scale. Ukraine has shown that in drone warfare, mass production matters almost as much as technological sophistication.

We recognise this reality by stressing the importance of scaling up production, including low-cost interceptor solutions and closer cooperation between governments and industry.

Our Opinion calls also for targeted EU support, including dedicated funding, critical infrastructure protection and risk-mitigation mechanisms, while drawing on the practical experience of frontline Eastern European and Baltic states where drone and hybrid threats are already a daily reality.

The real question is therefore quite simple: has Europe fully understood that the drone era is not a temporary challenge linked only to the war in Ukraine, but a long-term strategic reality?

The Commission’s Action Plan is an important step forward. The EESC Opinion strengthens it further by adding the industrial, societal and Eastern Flank dimensions. But the ultimate test will not be the quality of the documents produced in Brussels. In drone warfare, the winners are rarely those who write the best strategies. They are the ones who innovate faster, produce faster and adapt faster.

Europe is finally taking drones seriously. The challenge now is to make sure it is not too late.

By Eitvydas Bajarūnas, EESC Employers' Group member and Study Group member of Opinion CCMI/265 Drone and Counter Drone Industry: Strengthening EU's Defence Readiness.