奥地利格拉茨——欧盟委员会本周公布了2025年欧洲国防基金（EDF）提案征集结果，选择了57个协作研究与开发项目，共计提供10.7亿欧元（约12.6亿美元）的欧盟资金。这一方案清晰地展示了该联盟的国防重点：无人机、自主化以及与基辅日益制度化的伙伴关系。
在总额中，6.75亿欧元将支持32个能力开发项目，3.32亿欧元将用于25个研究倡议。根据支出计划摘要，选定项目涉及来自26个欧盟成员国及挪威的634个实体，其中中小企业占参与者的38%以上，并获得了超过21%的总资金。
最引人注目的项目群标志着向21世纪战争的转型，至少有四个独立的倡议——EURODAMM、LUMINA、SKYRAPTOR和TALON——专门致力于巡飞弹和廉价大规模无人机的生产。这一集中投入反映了从冲突中吸取的惨痛教训：廉价、可消耗的打击无人机已经重塑了战场，而欧洲的国防工业在赶超方面进展缓慢。
冲突中的经验教训在欧洲国防基金关于该轮资金及个人项目的材料中被反复提及。这些战场知识现在正被整合到基金的架构中。乌克兰实体首次被允许作为分包商和第三方接收方参与项目，这标志着将乌克兰的国防技术和工业基础整合到欧洲生态系统中的重要一步。
Soldiers from a drone unit of Ukraine's 422nd Separate Unmanned Systems Regiment "Luftwaffe" prepare a Baba Yaga heavy bomber drone before a nighttime training flight in the Zaporizhzhia direction, Ukraine, on March 23, 2026. (Dmytro Smolienko/Ukrinform/NurPhoto via Getty Images)GRAZ, Austria — The European Commission this week unveiled the results of its 2025 European Defence Fund call for proposals, selecting 57 collaborative research and development projects for a combined €1.07 billion ($1.26 billion) in EU funding − a package that makes clear where the bloc’s defense priorities lie: drones, autonomy, and an increasingly institutionalized partnership with Kyiv.Of the total, €675 million ($796 million) will support 32 capability development projects, and €332 million ($391 million) will go to 25 research initiatives. The selected projects involve 634 entities from 26 EU member states plus Norway, with small and medium-sized enterprises making up more than 38% of participants and receiving over 21% of the total funding, according to a summary of the spending plan.The most striking cluster of projects marks a shift to 21st-century warfare, with at least four separate initiatives − EURODAMM, LUMINA, SKYRAPTOR, and TALON − devoted specifically to loitering munitions and affordable mass drone production.The concentration reflects an uncomfortable lesson absorbed from the war in Ukraine: cheap, expendable strike drones have reshaped the battlefield, and Europe’s defense industry has been slow to catch up. Lessons learned in Ukraine are referenced repeatedly throughout the EDF’s materials on the funding round and individual projects. That battlefield knowledge is now being plugged into the fund’s architecture. For the first time, Ukrainian entities are eligible to participate in EDF projects as subcontractors and third-party recipients, marking a significant step toward integrating Ukraine’s defense-technological and industrial base into the European ecosystem. In the coming months, Kyiv and Brussels are expected to complete the required association agreement to allow Ukraine full participation on equal terms with EU member states in the future. The EU Defence Innovation Office in Kyiv, established under the European Defence Industrial Strategy in 2024, has been the institutional engine behind that push. One flagship project, STRATUS, will develop an AI-powered cyber defense system for drone swarms and includes a Ukrainian subcontractor, a model the Commission explicitly frames as bringing “direct battlefield experience” into EU-funded R&D.More than 15 of the 57 projects are tied to the Commission’s four European Readiness Flagships, a set of priority capability areas the bloc identified last year as critical to near-term operational readiness. Project AETHER, for instance, will develop propulsion and thermal management systems in support of the Drone Defence Initiative.To widen the industrial base, several projects focused on mass-producible drone m
