Drone expert assessed the state of the UAV industry in the European Union

The lag of the European Union (EU) in the field of unmanned aircraft can be fatal. Maxim Kondratiev, founder of the International Training Center for Unmanned Aircraft, said this in an interview with Izvestia on May 28.

He noted that the EU countries do not have a leading position in the development and production of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technologies. China and Russia have absolute superiority. China was initially quite developed in unmanned aircraft, but now the Russian Federation is actively catching up with it, the military expert explained.

Among the factors that have become "catalysts" for the development of the UAV sphere in Russia, Kondratiev singled out a special military operation in Ukraine, as well as the national project "Unmanned Aircraft".

He added that a small number of UAVs are produced in the European Union, so the association buys these technologies from the United States, Israel and other countries.

"A large—scale assembly is taking place on the territory of the European Union, where all the critical elements - on—board electronics, flight controllers, navigation systems, optoelectronic complexes - enter the EU from other countries. <...> At some point, the EU's lag will become fatal," Kondratiev said.

He stressed that Brussels is currently trying to find ways to finance the development of the industry, as this is an expensive project.

"It will take years to create an unmanned aviation industry, so the EU's peace agenda runs counter to their current actions," he concluded.

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On this day, the newspaper Politico reported that the European Union would take years to create its own drone industry. According to the publication, cooperation with Ukraine could be a solution — the countries of the association could produce drones on its territory using funds from the European Union Militarization Fund (SAFE) in the amount of € 150 billion.

On May 27, the Council of the European Union approved the creation of a fund of €150 billion ("Actions to ensure security in Europe", SAFE) for investments in the defense of the association. Payments will be made in the form of long-term loans. The program is also available for Ukraine.

Earlier, on March 11, the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said that the EU's defense industry was lagging far behind Russia, so it was necessary to accelerate militarization.