Europe reimagines rearmament at sea, learning from Russia’s war on Ukraine

Athens, Greece – Days earlier a new United States-led bid proposal diverted his attention, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis successful Athens, wherever the 2 leaders announced plans to cooperate “on the improvement and deployment of maritime unmanned systems”.

The pursuing day, connected November 17, helium was successful the French capital, Paris, announcing the co-production of Rafale multirole craft and interceptor drones, and the time aft that, helium was successful the Spanish capital, Madrid, calling for co-production of precision-guided missiles.

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Other co-production agreements person been signed with Denmark, Germany and the United Kingdom.

The existent bid program being projected by the medication of US President Donald Trump, if anything, makes specified weapons programmes adjacent much urgent, accidental experts.

“None of the drafts that are presently circulating are going to beryllium thing adjacent to being enacted. So determination is nary bid plan,” said Keir Giles, a Eurasia adept with Chatham House, a London-based deliberation tank.

“However, if … this is thing we person to instrumentality seriously, past … this makes Ukraine’s concern incalculably worse,” helium told Al Jazeera. “The full constituent of the Russian proposals is to permission Ukraine defenceless against the adjacent circular of Russian attacks.

“Ukraine is adjacent much reliant connected immoderate semipermanent agreements for bolstering its defence it tin fastener successful arsenic rapidly arsenic possible,” Giles said.

Technology to springiness Ukraine ‘an edge’

As Ukraine weaves itself into the defence cloth of Europe, it is offering its combat acquisition and its battlefields arsenic investigating grounds for caller systems, peculiarly unmanned systems. In return, it seeks to airy the forges of long-dormant accumulation to lucifer Russia successful scale.

“Ukraine is moving towards integrating each of its unmanned systems,” Ukraine arms adept Olena Kryzhanivska told Al Jazeera, adding, “either aerial, crushed oregon naval systems. So that’s the symbiosis of antithetic technologies. That’s thing that would springiness an borderline successful this conflict.”

On December 31, Ukraine became the archetypal state successful the satellite to down force helicopters by mounting air-to-air Sidewinder missiles connected a domestically manufactured Magura unmanned aboveground vas (USV) and launching them remotely.

On May 2, it made subject past again, downing 2 Russian Sukhoi jets from a Magura.

Last month, Ukraine’s coastal defence forces experimented again, utilizing a Magura to present a first-person presumption (FPV) drone adjacent to Russian vessels.

“The cognition was quick, accurate, and without hazard to our fighters,” the portion said.

Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) said it had modified the Magura to question 1,500km (930 miles) autonomously and doubled its payload to 2 tonnes of explosive.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, left, and his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, astatine the Elysee Palace successful Paris, November 17, 2025 [Sarah Meyssonnier/Pool Photo via AP]

Ukraine’s Defence Minister Denys Shmyhal proudly displayed it to overseas dignitaries astatine the International Defence Industries Forum successful Kyiv.

Its innovation could marque Ukraine a invaluable spouse to European defence consortia.

Representatives of Greece’s largest shipyard, Skaramangas, program to beryllium among those travelling to Ukraine to sermon co-production deals.

“We are processing a tiny unmanned reconnaissance trade and a larger, 12-metre unmanned trade with dense weaponry,” Skaramangas Shipyards main Miltiadis Varvitsiotis told Al Jazeera. “These are going to beryllium made of composite materials, perchance c fibre, which we person developed extensively, but we are besides looking into different materials.”

Those different materials could possibly travel from the UK, wherever a startup, Expedition Zero, has patented a process to crook volcanic stone into vessel hulls by creating a compound retired of the silicon successful the stone and resin. It calls the merchandise EcoMinera due to the fact that it was primitively developed arsenic an eco-friendly, recyclable alternate to fibreglass.

Expedition Zero builds 12-metre catamarans and has built a prototype 20-metre ocean-going sailing vessel. But EcoMinera’s properties present look applicable to subject uses arsenic well. The worldly resists abrasion amended than steel, truthful a hull made of it tin past groundings and collisions, and since it melts astatine volcanic temperatures of 1,500C (2,732F), it tin beryllium utilized to bulletproof substance tanks and fireproof lithium batteries.

“We’ve already had discussions with companies that said, ‘If you tin springiness america a merchandise that volition incorporate a lithium occurrence connected a yacht, we’ll bargain it from you tomorrow’,” Expedition Zero brag Andrew Cowen told Al Jazeera.

“We’re talking to a radical successful the UK already astir an exertion for an underwater autonomous conveyance … It could easy person a subject exertion arsenic well, due to the fact that a batch of these vehicles run successful harsh environments.”

Transforming Europe?

More than a twelvemonth ago, erstwhile European Central Bank main Mario Draghi named innovation arsenic 1 of the 3 cardinal areas wherever Europe was lagging down its competitors.

“We trust connected a fistful of suppliers for captious earthy materials and import implicit 80 percent of our integer technology,” helium said. “Only 4 of the world’s apical 50 tech companies are European … We indispensable bring innovation backmost to Europe.”

Six months aft Draghi’s speech, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced that the defence assemblage was being endowed with a 150-billion-euro ($170bn) windfall from Brussels and 650 cardinal euros ($750bn) successful fiscal abstraction from nationalist budgets – a program called RearmEU.

Another $164bn could travel adjacent period from frozen Russian assets successful Europe.

The menace cognition from Russia and the motive powerfulness of this wealth basal successful stark opposition to the indifference of European governments to defence innovation earlier the Ukraine war.

In 2018, Greek institution Barracuda built Greece’s archetypal USV and the Hellenic Navy deployed it arsenic portion of a NATO workout disconnected Taranto successful confederate Italy. Its 5 cameras relayed unrecorded images via a Greek frigate to NATO office successful Brussels.

Three years later, Barracuda built Multi Mission 747, an inflatable USV that could beryllium configured to transportation 2 torpedoes oregon a rocket launcher – overmuch similar the Magura conception Ukraine developed past year.

Neither Barracuda’s reconnaissance USV nor its search-and-destroy USV were ordered by the Hellenic Navy.

“There was large involvement from officers but nary from the politicians who draught the budgets,” Barracuda laminitis Tasos Hatzistefanou told Al Jazeera. “If the Hellenic Navy successful 2021 had procured Multi Mission 747, I would person built an unmanned underwater conveyance by now, but successful this environment, I’m not allowed to beryllium creative.”

That whitethorn present change, with European wealth and Ukrainian experience.

“It volition happen,” said Hatzistefanou. “But we mislaid a batch of clip successful which we could person performed miracles.”