NATO opens a counter-drone “marketplace” with no new tenders – the five companies on the catalogue

NATO has had its own “marketplace” for counter-drone systems since Thursday, November 5. The Alliance activated the C-UAS platform, from which member states can buy counter-drone solutions directly from NATO’s catalogue, without opening a tender of their own. The aim is to cover allies’ urgent operational needs quickly.

The most interesting element is that these are not prototypes. Everything on the catalogue is already operational in allied countries and in Ukraine, where drone warfare has become an everyday reality. There are 16 solutions from five companies, Alta Ares, Axon Enterprise, Northrop Grumman, OSL UK and Quantum Systems, including fixed, transportable and on-the-move systems.

The selection was made through a competitive process by the NATO Communications and Information Agency (NCIA), which also hosts the Alliance’s Counter-UAS (C-UAS) Centre of Excellence. The criteria drew on lessons from exercises, NATO activities and national innovation programmes.

What follows: the framework contracts, managed by the NCIA, have been awarded to more than one supplier for a period of a year and a half, while €3.1 million is earmarked for additional testing of the solutions by member states or NATO commands. To keep the catalogue up to date, the Alliance plans to issue new calls regularly.

From Ankara to the catalogue

The platform is part of the Drone Edge initiative, announced in July at the Defence Industry Forum of the NATO summit in Ankara. In the initiative’s text, allies noted that drones have radically changed the nature of war and that drone incidents against member states, mainly on the eastern flank, have increased in recent months. They pledged to invest more than $40 billion in counter-drone capabilities within five years and, by the end of 2027, to train five times as many drone operators in their armed forces. NATO’s platform operates in parallel with national platforms and other procurement procedures.

Demand for such systems is also visible in US forces in the Middle East, where CENTCOM received more than 25,000 drones and counter-drone systems during the year. For member states, the catalogue means access to proven systems without lengthy tenders. Greece, for its part, has also invested in a domestic solution, the Hellenic Aerospace Industry (EAB) “Centaur” counter-drone system.