European Commission awards €168.2m to eight projects for drones, missiles and ammunition production
The funding will leverage €1.26bn of industry investment and expand capacity across 17 sites in EU countries and Norway.
The European Commission has announced a €168.2 million award to eight projects designed to expand European production of drones, missiles and ammunition, leveraging €1.26 billion in industrial investment.
The funded initiatives are intended to speed up and scale the manufacture of components for those defence products. The Commission expects the projects to cut production times by up to 90% and to enable annual outputs of more than 20,000 tonnes of parts, 3,500 propulsion systems for drones and missiles, 200,000 warheads for ammunition and 60 million rounds of ammunition from next year.
The investment package will support production at 17 locations across 14 countries in the EU and Norway, and includes measures to strengthen physical and cyber protection of those facilities against rising threats.
Program scope and budget
The measures form part of an EU programme to promote defence production with a total budget of €1.5 billion. Half of that fund is earmarked for deploying capacities in the EU, Norway and Ukraine.
Commission officials say the projects will mobilise significant private-sector finance and industrial capacity to reduce lead times and increase output of key defence components. The combination of public funding and projected industrial investment is aimed at ensuring Europe can produce larger volumes of critical equipment more quickly.
Photo: press material from the event
