NATO launches digital platform for anti-drone capabilities acquisition

A NATO announced today that it has launched a common platform to enable Member States to equip themselves more quickly and effectively with anti-drone capabilities following the increase in the number of attacks.

“ The idea is to propose a kind of buying experience, sometimes referred to as ‘e-commerce type’ [electronic trade, in Portuguese], to acquire, through a very simple mechanism, these anti-drone media”, explained to journalists the head of the Innovation Division of the Atlantic Alliance, Claudio Palestini.

Based on experience, NATO launched public procurement procedures to select the most effective and most economical equipment before presenting them to the members of the alliance.

About 80 proposals were received and 16 contracts were signed with five defense companies: the French ‘start-up’ Alta Ares, German Quantum Systems, Northrop Grumman and Axon, and British OSL Technology.

Its products, all selected after an evaluation phase that lasted several months, are now available for purchase or long-term rental by the 32 member states of the Atlantic Alliance.

They are designed to protect borders or strategic locations and offer different solutions: signal blocking or the use of interceptor drones, or other types of weaponry (artillery, etc.).

Each of these capacities costs between EUR 1.6 million and EUR 25 million, NATO needed.

The countries of the Atlantic Alliance committed at the Hague Summit in 2025 to investing at least 40 billion dollars (about EUR 37 billion to the current exchange rate) over five years to strengthen their anti-drone capabilities.

Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, former Soviet republics that share a border with Russia, regularly record intrusions of Russian drones into their territory.

Poland and Romania were also victims of these intrusions.

So is the sea Black has been the scene of attacks on commercial ships.