Dutch Pledge €200 Million to Bolster Ukraine’s Anti-Drone System

The Netherlands has allocated €200 million to strengthen Ukraine’s anti—drone capabilities, according to Dutch Defense Minister Ruben Brekelmans.

“We will spend it on counter-drone systems that can shoot down drones in Ukraine, the urgent need for which we saw again last night,” Brekelmans said during a phone interview from Ukraine. “Overnight there have been major air strikes here, which have had a significant impact because they are largely targeting the local energy infrastructure.”

Ukraine is working to strengthen its air defenses as Russia intensifies drone attacks nationwide. With winter setting in, Moscow’s forces are targeting key energy infrastructure, including a strike earlier this week that disabled over half of Ukraine’s gas production.

The anti-drone support is part of a defense deal that Ukraine made with the Dutch that also includes a memorandum of understanding on the co-production of drones, which President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called “one of the promising areas of our bilateral cooperation” in a post on X.

“Dutch and Ukrainian companies can increase production together, for example by setting up joint ventures,” Brekelmans said. While the intention is to initially produce jointly in the Netherlands for Ukraine, given their urgent need, the same production lines could be used in the future for the Dutch armed forces.

Ukraine has a similar arrangement with Denmark, which has set up a co-production facility that currently serves Ukrainian needs but can later be redirected to supply Danish forces. The UK announced its own drone co-production agreement earlier Friday, called project “Octopus.”

Brekelmans sees numerous advantages to such investments in drone technology, as this way “the Netherlands is naturally learning more about these systems and establishing contacts with the developers and manufacturers.” He called it a necessity, given that “the entire NATO-alliance needs more” of these counter-drone systems in the next few years.

“It is a way to bring the lessons learned from Ukraine to the Netherlands.” he added.

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