From 10 to 20 September 2024, over 450 participants from 19 NATO Allies and three partner-countries gathered in the Netherlands to test the ability of commercially available counter-drone systems to operate seamlessly together. Ukraine participated for the first time, alongside members of the private sector and research community.
During NATO’s annual Counter-Unmanned Aircraft System (C-UAS) Technical Interoperability Exercise (TIE), more than 60 counter-drone systems and technologies such as sensors, drone-on-drone systems, jammers and cyber interceptors were tested live.
Ukraine’s first active participation in the exercise is part of the NATO-Ukraine Innovation Cooperation Roadmap endorsed by Allied and Ukrainian Leaders at the Washington Summit. Exercises like the C-UAS TIE provide a unique opportunity to address pressing challenges together, such as drone autonomy and interoperability while also learning from Ukraine’s battlefield experience in countering small drones.
Integrating counter-drone technologies into NATO’s Integrated Air and Missile Defence (IAMD) is important to the Alliance’s enhanced deterrence and defence posture. At the 2024 Washington Summit, Allies took steps to further improve the readiness, responsiveness and integration of NATO IAMD, and agreed to support the design and implementation of an integrated air and missile defence architecture for Ukraine.
