Germany plans to spend about €10 billion on military drones over the coming years, Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said in October 2025, Bloomberg reported. The first orders came in February 2026. The Bundestag’s budget committee approved loitering munitions from Helsing and Stark, about €270 million from each, for the German brigade in Lithuania.
France and Poland are spending too. Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu told parliament on 25 March 2026 that France would buy an extra €8.5 billion of munitions by 2030, Defense News reported. That covers munitions in general, with air defence, interceptor drones and loitering munitions among the priorities. Poland’s defence ministry launched what it calls a “drone revolution” in July 2025, starting with PLN 200 million, and set up separate Drone Forces from 1 January 2026.
The urgency comes from Ukraine. Col. Ivan Pavlenko of Ukraine’s General Staff has said the country uses 7,000 to 9,000 drones a day, according to Bloomberg. Ukraine’s commander-in-chief, Oleksandr Syrskyi, said in January 2026 that Russia was making about 404 Shahed-type drones a day and aiming for 1,000. Both are Ukrainian figures, not independently checked.
The costs run the wrong way for the defender. A Shahed costs an estimated $20,000 to $50,000 to build, by the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ reckoning. On the night of 9 to 10 September 2025, about 19 Russian drones crossed into Poland. Polish F-16s and Dutch F-35s shot down at least three of them.
What the EU is doing
The European Commission’s Defence Readiness Roadmap 2030, published in October 2025, named two drone projects as flagships. The European Drone Defence Initiative is meant to reach initial capacity by the end of 2026 and work fully by the end of 2027. Eastern Flank Watch covers the border with Russia and Belarus; Finland and Poland lead it. In March 2026 member states were still drafting their national plans, European Security & Defence reported.
The money comes mostly as loans. SAFE lends up to €150 billion for defence purchases, and small drones and counter-drone systems qualify. The European Defence Industry Programme adds €1.5 billion of grants for 2025 to 2027, approved by the Council on 8 December 2025.
Ukraine is part of the plan. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced a drone alliance with Ukraine on 10 September 2025, with €6 billion from the loan backed by frozen Russian assets. The aim is drones designed in Ukraine and built at scale with European firms.
What is missing is a production figure. Neither the Commission nor Germany, France or Poland has said how many military drones European factories now turn out, and Helsing, Stark and Quantum Systems have not published output. The orders by country are in FlightBrief’s European loitering-munition orders table, on the loitering munitions guide.
The Commission’s target for the drone shield’s first capacity is the end of this year.
