ROME \u2014 As supplies are rushed to the front line in Ukraine using unmanned aerial and terrestrial platforms, the European Defense Agency has brought manufacturers and militaries together at an Italian training site to ensure Europe has the right kit and doctrine \u2013 as soon as possible \u2013 to do the same thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Unmanned aerial vehicles and unmanned ground vehicles were sent into action at an exercise near Rome organized by the EDA to spark better dialogue between the developers of new platforms and the soldiers that need them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The first-ever European Defence Innovation Operational Experimentation (OPEX) campaign, was designed to bring what the EDA called the \u201cvalley of death,\u201d where industry research and innovation stall and die before getting into the hands of militaries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe war in Ukraine reshaped our understanding of defense innovation, compressing years of development into weeks through rapid prototyping, adaptability, and tight collaboration among armed forces, engineers, and civilians,\u201d said Andr\u00e9 Denk, EDA\u2019s chief executive at the event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAccelerating innovation from the lab to the field is our ticket to operational relevance,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The exercise at the Italian army\u2019s Montelibretti facility showed off aerial and terrestrial platforms from six companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Portugal\u2019s Beyond Vision, Greece\u2019s Altus LSA and Austria\u2019s Schiebel fielded UAVs while Spain\u2019s Alysis, Poland\u2019s Piap and Germany\u2019s Arx Robotics showed off UGVs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As UGVs scrambled in and out of water filled ditches they were watched by military officials from Italy, Austria, Germany, France, Belgium, Cyprus and Greece.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Three weeks of technical trials at Montelibretti which wrapped up on July 3 will be followed by operational trials at the Italian army\u2019s facility at Nettuno, also Rome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe are missing a link between research and development and end users, and this exercise was a chance for militaries to see the technology in action and understand the possibilities for tactics and doctrine,\u201d said an EDA official.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cUkrainian experts have helped us design scenarios for the use of the technology and the EDA will create a blueprint to show armies how they can quickly integrate it,\u201d added the official.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The exercise involved showing how supplies could be dropped off by UAV and transferred to a UGV for a final journey to a front line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The official said such experimentation was underway at the national level in Europe using local firms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe are now showing armies systems they don\u2019t know about and increasing discussions and lessons for the first time,\u201d the official said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ukrainian experts helped the European Defence Agency design scenarios for front-line combat logistics by way of aerial and terrestrial drones.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":119712,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":46,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[160,46,11,36,27],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3345],"class_list":["post-70254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-europe","category-global","category-newsletters","category-unmanned"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"QGIVPFDKLRBJJMEXFLTTKTMBEI","arc_canonical_url":"\/global\/europe\/2025\/07\/04\/eu-militaries-game-out-ukraine-inspired-resupply-tactics-via-drones\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n