BRUSSELS, Feb. 11 (Xinhua) -- The European Commission on Wednesday unveiled an action plan to counter drone threats, calling for stronger defense readiness.
Under the plan, the Commission will set up a new EU Counter-Drone Centre of Excellence and develop a certification scheme for counter-drone systems. It will also launch a Drone and Counter-drone Industry Forum to boost dialogue with industry and scale up production.
The Commission will introduce a Drone Security Package to overhaul rules on civilian airborne drones and adapt them to "new security realities." The package includes measures for coordinated risk assessments to protect technology supply chains for drones and counter-drone systems, alongside the launch of an "EU Trusted Drone" label to identify secure equipment on the market.
The plan also aims to ramp up drone detection, envisaging "single air display systems" and a "Drone Incident Platform" to help identify malicious drones, the Commission said.
It added that 5G networks must be "urgently" leveraged to detect drones, including those not connected to networks.
The Commission said it will invite interested member states to join forces on the public procurement and deployment of counter-drone systems, support the development of sovereign European, AI-powered command-and-control systems, and consider setting up rapid counter-drone emergency response teams.
It also proposed an annual large-scale EU counter-drone exercise to stress-test cross-border cooperation and civil-military coordination. It would continue providing the EU's border agency Frontex with drones and related technologies for border surveillance. ■
