On the night of 9 to 10 September 2025, at least 19 Russian drones entered Polish airspace. NATO aircraft, including Dutch F-35s, downed several of them: interceptor missiles of over €1M apiece against drones estimated at €10k. Het Parool described this past weekend why such incursions have since become structural, from Copenhagen and Munich to Dutch air bases, and why Europe is therefore building a ‘drone wall’.

That wall deserves a precise definition. A drone wall consists of three separate capabilities: detection, identification and interception. Each layer has its own technology, its own suppliers and its own qualification path. The European Drone Defence Initiative, as the project is officially known in Brussels, must deliver an initial capability by the end of 2026 and be fully operational by the end of 2027. That first deadline falls this year.

Detection requires sensors that see small, low and slow-flying aircraft, where conventional airspace surveillance is built for large and fast targets. What is needed is a permanent network of radar, radio-frequency detection and electro-optical systems above airfields, ports and barracks. Persistent surveillance of critical infrastructure is precisely the work Tective builds its autonomous drone hives for: systems that fly 24/7, with no operator on site.

Identification then determines what is up there: a hobby drone, a reconnaissance platform or a one-way effector. Without that layer, an airport closes its entire airspace for every unknown object, as Copenhagen showed in September 2025, when operations stopped for hours and tens of thousands of passengers were stranded. Sensor fusion, classification within seconds and a clear mandate on who may intervene together form the layer Europe has least of today.

Interception, finally, must be cheaper than the threat. Ukraine points the way with interceptor drones and electronic warfare (EW), at a fraction of the cost of classic air defence. Jamming renders that airspace GNSS-denied (Global Navigation Satellite System): navigating without a satellite signal becomes the binding requirement for every interceptor. Vydar develops edge-AI navigation hardware for exactly this and tested it under front-line conditions in Ukraine in March 2026.

These three layers come to a large extent from young companies. European primes contend with full order books, while the drone threat renews itself in months; that development pace sits with technical founders from Delft. The early capital is missing: tickets below €1M have become scarce in the Netherlands, and American investors were involved in 40% of Dutch breakout rounds in 2025 (State of Dutch Tech 2026). Whoever makes the first investment determines where this capability, and control over it, will land.