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Video: How ‘Trophy’ Videos Link Paramilitary Commanders to War Crimes in Sudan

Published

1 year ago

December 31, 2024

Video: How ‘Trophy’ Videos Link Paramilitary Commanders to War Crimes in Sudan

[EXPLOSION] “The people are running away from the bombing. People are dying. We just send this to the nation to see what is happening in Nuba Mountains.” [GUNSHOTS] “Yeah.” Sudan is in the grip of a brutal civil war. Eleven million people have been driven from their homes, and tens of thousands have been killed. As a paramilitary group called the Rapid Support Forces — [CRIES] — battles the Sudanese Army for control of the country. The U.N. has accused both sides of abuses. But a six-month investigation by The New York Times shows that the R.S.F. is committing systemic atrocities across Sudan, including ethnic cleansing – often under the watch of its commanders. The opaque structure of the R.S.F. makes it hard to identify the leaders responsible. But by analyzing dozens of slick propaganda videos, where the commanders are presented as benevolent actors, we mapped out for the first time a command structure of at least 20 key figures and the regions they operate in. R.S.F. fighters under these commanders often film atrocities themselves, evidence that may one day hold perpetrators to account. So The Times teamed up with researchers at C.I.R.‘s Sudan Witness Project to collect these videos as the R.S.F. moved across Sudan. We analyzed fire signals and images collected by satellites, too. We interviewed an R.S.F. commander on the front line. And we spoke to witnesses to the war by partnering with Ayin Media, a network of reporters working anonymously in Sudan. Taken together, the evidence traces a playbook of terror being waged by the R.S.F. in multiple states. And locates Commanders like these — at or very near the sites of crimes. Sudan has been here before. Almost two decades ago, a notorious militia called the Janjaweed, meaning devils on horseback, carried out a genocide in Darfur. Over 300,000 people were estimated to have been killed. A former Janjaweed commander, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, or Hemeti, now leads the Rapid Support Forces, along with his brother Abdul Rahim as his deputy. And their fighters are using the tactics of Darfur from 20 years ago, in today’s civil war. We documented three broad patterns of abuse — executing unarmed captives, deliberately torching communities and directly abusing civilians, including with sexual violence. R.S.F. fighters can be identified by their uniform. They wear light camouflage, often with a Sudanese flag on one sleeve and a distinctive logo on the other. They sometimes recruit mercenaries and fight alongside loose-knit militias, who are usually in plain clothes. And many have scarves known as kadamols wrapped around their heads. We often hear them use the language of ethnic cleansing. Sudan’s army is also accused of war crimes, including deliberately starving civilians, shelling hospitals and indiscriminate airstrikes. [WARPLANE FLYING] As many as 200 people were reportedly killed in airstrikes earlier this month in Darfur. But in this investigation — — we documented abuses by the R.S.F. on a much wider scale — — that may amount to crimes against humanity. One of the commanders we found at the site of several atrocities is Hussein Barsham. He usually directs fighting in the Kordofan region, and that’s where we find him in October 2023, when the R.S.F. seized Baleela Airport and a major oil field nearby. Barsham celebrates by the front of the terminal, but video filmed on the other side shows what their victory looks like — [RAPID GUNFIRE] — fighters executing a group of captives. A warning — these videos are very graphic. So we’ve blurred some scenes. As the person filming enters this parking lot, a gunman is firing into a pile of bodies on the ground. [GUNSHOTS] R.S.F. fighters circle the victims and applaud the killing. Fourteen bodies in total. Many of them are wearing the dark fatigues typical of the Sudanese army, who were defending the airport. They are now unarmed, and to execute them would be a war crime. In addition to our analysis, a doctor with expertise in conflict-related injuries told us there are signs that that’s exactly what happened here. The blood is fresh. Several of the bodies are twitching, indicating they were recently killed. The blood splatter matches the gunshot wounds, and some of the body positions suggest they were killed here, not moved after the fight. Barsham is nearby, showing off the jacket of a Sudanese soldier. A satellite image taken on Oct. 30 shows the execution site, confirming the men were killed on that day. Barsham was just 100 yards away. He’s at the scene, commanding his forces around the time of the executions. Under the laws of war, he may bear responsibility if he ordered this crime or did nothing to prevent it. Eight months later, we found Barsham with three more R.S.F. commanders, Salih Al Futi, Al Taj Al Tijani and a field commander with the nom de guerre John Garang, when their fighters carried out another execution. This time it was in El Fula, the capital of West Kordofan. On June 20, we see a large convoy of R.S.F. fighters rolling into the town. [CHEERING] They spread out between streets of homes — — brag about men they had killed — — and threaten others taken captive. Hundreds of Sudanese soldiers defending El Fula had fled south earlier that day, and the R.S.F. easily overruns the city. [GUNSHOTS] Barsham is there among them. Al Tijani, too, standing alongside Barsham. And nearby, fighters swarm around Salih Al Futi as he walks. During the attack, the R.S.F. rounds up 20 men and takes them just outside the town. An unidentified fighter says that he recognizes one of the men as an army officer. A few of the men are wearing military fatigues but none of them are armed. Then, just as they did at Baleela Airport, the R.S.F. opened fire. [GUNSHOTS] The field commander, who goes by John Garang, is with them. In the fray, they laud their senior commanders, Al Tijani and Al Futi. Al Tijani, Al Futi and Barsham are not in the videos of these executions. But by analyzing footage of them that day, we know they were less than a mile away. And we know they’re in El Fula around the same time as the executions because the shadows in both sets of videos match. These commanders know each other. They’re repeatedly filmed together in West Kordofan. And in the eight months between the executions at Baleela and El Fula, they appear to have done nothing to stop their fighters’ behavior. One of the war’s most notorious episodes was the execution of the then governor of West Darfur, Khamis Abakar. In June 2023, he was captured by the R.S.F. hours after he publicly criticized the group. Video shows him being forced inside a building by a commander, Abdelrahman Joma Barakallah. This was the last time he was seen alive. Video filmed hours later showed his bloodied body. Governor Abakar’s killing happened during a campaign of ethnic violence targeting his tribe, the Masalit community in El Geneina, the same group the Janjaweed terrorized decades ago. Mariam Mohammed Ismael is among half a million Sudanese who fled the violence to Chad. The R.S.F. laid waste to El Geneina, burning down or destroying close to one quarter of the city’s 300,000 buildings, just as the Janjaweed did decades ago. And they’ve used fire as a method of war across the rest of Darfur and beyond for almost two years. In Kutum, in North Darfur, entire communities have been destroyed since October. Satellite images show no natural fire path between burned homes, and multiple villages are separately burned. These are telltale signs of arson. Hundreds of miles away in Al Takmah, we catch R.S.F. fighters in the act. They’re jubilant — — as homes and shops burn. They destroyed half the town. At a military base the R.S.F. seized in Sidrah, a commander oversees the burning. A fighter walks into view, holding a torch and burning down huts. The one he just passed is now ablaze, and the group gloats as they burn. A field commander named Al Gouja is nearby — — bragging as even more huts go up in flames. Al Gouja is not the only commander implicated in scorched earth tactics. We found four R.S.F. commanders directing attacks during a deadly monthlong assault in North Darfur: Al Nour Al Guba and Geddo Hamdan Abu Shouk, both high-ranking commanders, and Ali Rizkallah and Zeer Salim, both lower-ranking field commanders. For weeks, they oversaw a brutal campaign to capture the state’s capital, El Fasher, from Sudan’s army and forces allied with them. The R.S.F. encircled the city in April. Dozens of outlying villages were torched in attacks targeting the Zaghawa ethnic group. The siege forced a heavily pregnant Ekhlas Adam Ali El Haj to flee her home village of Tawila. She reached the village near Golo Dam. It’s here, in Golo Dam, that we find the first of the North Darfur commanders, Ali Rizkallah, telling passersby not to leave, that they’re safe. The reservoir in Golo Dam was the main water source for the area, serving more than 200,000 people. Rizkallah ordered it to be turned off. Ekhlas escaped again, this time to a school in El Fasher. But the R.S.F. pushed into the city. This is where we see another three commanders on the front line — Zeer Salim, the lower-ranking commander, and Al Guba and Abu Shouk, the senior commanders. An R.S.F. field commander in El Fasher confirmed to us that the senior commanders are in charge. We’re going to focus here on 48 hours on June 1 and 2, when we see these commanders together as a whole neighborhood is torched. Zeer Salim is regularly filmed fighting on the streets with his forces. On June 1, he appears in another video, not fighting this time but giving the call to prayer inside a mosque. We located the mosque to eastern El Fasher. The next day, Zeer Salim is out in the street, just two blocks from the mosque. [GUNSHOTS] That same day, he’s with his superior officers, Al Guba and Abu Shouk, 1,000 feet from the mosque as they rally their troops. All around this area, clusters of buildings were burned down as the R.S.F. took control, and on June 1, even more buildings were torched. The R.S.F. commander denied responsibility and blamed the Sudanese Army bombing. There are some signs of bombardment, but most of the destruction that we analyzed is consistent with the R.S.F. scorched-earth tactics. A mile away from the mosque, a neighborhood the size of 10 city blocks in Manhattan is ablaze that morning. Multiple fires appear to have been ignited around the same time, where members of the Zaghawa ethnic group were believed to be living. This is evidence of a targeted ground-based attack, researchers from the Humanitarian Research Lab at Yale University say. By August, more than 20,000 structures were damaged or destroyed, many by fire. The devastation is heavily concentrated in the eastern part of the city, the area of R.S.F. advance. Arafa Ali Yagoub was living in this area, and she recalled the R.S.F. terrorizing them before they fled. Her husband was abducted. Arafa was displaced from her home by the Janjaweed when she was a child, and now by the R.S.F. The senior commanders on the ground in El Fasher, Al Guba and Abu Shouk, were both in the Janjaweed and have led R.S.F. forces in North Darfur for years. Abu Shouk is a relative of the R.S.F. leader Hemeti, and he has a history of ethnic violence with Zaghawa rivals, who his forces targeted again in El Fasher. The presence of these high-ranking commanders in El Fasher — — shows the significance of this campaign to the R.S.F., and it unwittingly links them to these atrocities. Ekhlas, Arafa and many thousands more were forced to flee, this time back to Ekhlas’s home in Tawila. When Ekhlas reached her home, even that had been looted. The terror that Ekhlas and Arafa endured in El Fasher is being inflicted on ordinary civilians throughout Sudan. Countless videos show the R.S.F. whipping people. Beating them, sometimes shooting them. [GUNSHOTS] And forcing them to make animal noises. In October, the R.S.F. repeatedly attacked civilians in Gezira State, after Abu Aqla Kaykal, an R.S.F. commander from that area — — defected to Sudan’s army. This triggered a wave of retaliation by the R.S.F. Across Kaykal’s home state. Villages in Gezira were also attacked when Kaykal was in the R.S.F. But this time, they specifically targeted the tribe he was from. Hundreds were killed in a matter of weeks. One of the towns invaded by the R.S.F. is Al Seriha. An R.S.F. commander leading that campaign is Al Gouja, who we saw when huts were torched earlier. Here he is, 300 yards from Al Seriha, shooting at it and directing R.S.F. fighters around him. Once inside, they round up men and hold them. We don’t see what happens next. But the R.S.F. reportedly kills more than 100 people here. Simultaneous attacks were happening in villages right across the eastern Gezira region. In many places, the R.S.F. round up the men of the area or force them to run away at gunpoint. [GUN COCKS] Witnesses we spoke to were terrified. They stole Ammar El Awad Alam’s herd of goats. The R.S.F. emptied Al Seriha and many other villages. And the fighters gloated about their ethnic cleansing. The attacks triggered another exodus. 150,000 people left in two weeks. They are among over eight million people now displaced in Sudan, and millions more who have fled to neighboring countries. Evidence we collected of the R.S.F. rampage in Gezira match multiple accounts of another type of abuse — sexual violence. Survivors have given testimony to experts we interviewed, including Hala Al Karib, head of SIHA, a women’s advocacy group. Her team also received testimonials of rape in several towns in Gezira, particularly around the area that Kaykal was from. Tambul, Rufaa and Azraq are among the villages R.S.F. fighters bragged that they had destroyed. Experts we spoke to said that separating men from their families, as we see in Gezira, is a key indicator of sexual violence. Witnesses rarely talked directly about sexual violence, but they feared for the women and girls in their communities. Hanan Abbakar Al Tahir recalled R.S.F. fighters leering at her in her home in Gezira. They also killed a man for defending women. As Al-Nazeer fled his home, the R.S.F. beat him when he objected to women in his group being harassed. And later, he was shot. Human Rights Watch, the U.N. and other groups have documented sexual violence in at least five states in Sudan since the conflict broke out. Decades on from the genocide in Darfur, just one person has been put on trial at the International Criminal Court. This time, there may be a stronger prospect for accountability. The videos that fighters perceive as trophies of their exploits are regarded by the prosecutor of the I.C.C. as something else — evidence. “So we can piece together the different types of evidence sets that are available now, from phones, from video and audio recordings, that are also proving to be extremely critical to pierce the veil of impunity.” In this investigation, the footage allowed us to find 10 commanders overseeing potential crimes and identify the areas of operation of many more. Their leader, General Dagalo, or Hemeti, may bear ultimate responsibility. Over and over, fighters pay fealty to him. And the field commander we spoke to said that they take orders from the top. In almost two years of war, Hemeti has failed to stop them from carrying out abuses. But there are glimmers of hope. The survivors we spoke to recalled the kindness of strangers, fellow citizens who offered food, shelter or protection as they fled. What they need now is for the violence to end.

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‘Jumanji 3’ Gets Official Title and Action-Packed Trailer at CinemaCon; Dwayne Johnson Teases Robin Williams Tribute

Published

6 minutes ago

April 14, 2026

Press Room

‘Jumanji 3’ Gets Official Title and Action-Packed Trailer at CinemaCon; Dwayne Johnson Teases Robin Williams Tribute

Kevin Hart, Dwayne Johnson and Jack Black are dispensing with all the levels.

Sony Pictures unveiled a first look at “Jumanji: Open World,” the long-gestating, latest entry in the action-comedy franchise, at CinemaCon on Monday as part of its presentation to theater owners.

Once again, our heroes find that the boundaries between a fantastical game and the real world have blurred. This time, the three leading actors will play three different characters. Johnson’s Dr. Bravestone, for instance, is Spanish (he pronounces charisma like the guy from the Dos Equis ads), while Hart and Black’s characters are “stuck in demo mode” and still working out a few kinks. Hopefully, they adapt quickly, because the trailer that Sony shared included plenty of scenes of jungle beasts rampaging through a pastoral New England town.

“Jumanji” is one of the most successful series at Sony, but seven years have passed since 2019’s “Jumanji: The Next Level” opened and nearly a decade since 2017’s “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle” debuted. The movies were inspired by the 1995 Robin Williams hit “Jumanji,” which Hart, Johnson and Black said will be celebrated in the new film with an Easter egg. This film includes the original dice used in the first “Jumanji.”

“Robin, this one’s for you,” Johnson said, gesturing skyward in a nod to Williams, who died in 2014.

Jake Kasdan, who helmed the previous “Jumanji” films, is back behind the camera again. Karen Gillan, Nick Jonas, Awkwafina, Alex Wolff, Morgan Turner and Danny DeVito reprise their roles from the previous films. The latest “Jumanji” opens on December 25, 2026.

Johnson has teased that the franchise, or at least the part that stars him, will end with this third film. If it reaches the box office heights of its predecessors, it seems likely that Sony will find other ways for “Jumanji” to live on.

It may not be a hard sell for the actors. Most of the cast on stage said they loved making the latest “Jumanji,” with Black calling it his favorite moviemaking experience.

“This was not a good time for me,” Hart interjected jokingly. “It was fucking work!”

World

Macron under fire over Iran, Hezbollah policy as Trump admin hosts Israel-Lebanon talks

Published

1 hour ago

April 14, 2026

Press Room

Macron under fire over Iran, Hezbollah policy as Trump admin hosts Israel-Lebanon talks

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France’s President Emmanuel Macron is facing renewed criticism for his lack of support for President Donald Trump’s war against Iran and demands to include Lebanon in the current ceasefire as historic talks between Israel and Lebanon are set to begin Tuesday.

The historic meeting brokered by President Trump between Lebanon, a former French mandate, and Israel will take place at the ambassador level as hopes for an agreement evolve — most noticeably without French involvement. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is expected to host both nations’ ambassadors.

The Jerusalem Post reported that Israel’s government requested that France be excluded from the talks. An Israeli official told the paper that “France’s conduct over the past year – including initiatives aimed at limiting Israel’s ability to fight in Iran, and a complete lack of willingness to take concrete steps to help Lebanon disarm Hezbollah – has led Israel to view France as an unfair mediator.”

IRAN’S TERROR PROXIES FROM IRAQ-TO-LEBANON SAY READY TO RESPOND TO US-ISRAEL ATTACKS

French President Emmanuel Macron speaks during a meeting with President Trump and other world leaders. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

On Monday, Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem called on the Lebanese government to cancel the Tuesday meeting in Washington, while ⁠describing the talks as pointless. In a televised speech, Qassem said the ‌armed ⁠group will continue to confront Israeli attacks on Lebanon.

Hezbollah violated a ceasefire to enter the war on its patron, Iran’s side, in March, when it launched rockets into Israel after the U.S.-Israel joint attack on the Islamic Republic began. Still, Macron has demanded Israel stop attacking Hezbollah’s terror infrastructure in Lebanon.

Israeli Brig. General (Res.) Yosef Kuperwasser told Fox News Digital that Macron was “working against the best interests of the Lebanese state and government. This is a very problematic direction.” He accused Macron of taking the side of Hezbollah and normalizing Hezbollah because he is focused on “narrow interests.”

IRAN THREATENS TO END CEASEFIRE OVER HEZBOLLAH’S EXCLUSION FROM TRUCE DEAL

Hezbollah al-Mahdi scouts parade with big portraits of Iran’s late leader Ayatollah Khomeini, foreground, and Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, background, during an event for Jerusalem day or Al-Quds day, in the southern town of Nabatiyeh, Lebanon, Thursday, Aug. 1, 2013. (Hussein Malla/AP Photo)

The former head of research for the Israel Defense Forces’ Military Intelligence Directorate, Kuperwasser, added that the “Americans want us to engage with the Lebanese along with the military [in Lebanon]. Our expectations are very similar. We want to see Lebanon do something about Hezbollah, something real, not just issue statements and pledges. We believe we have helped them by weakening Hezbollah militarily since they decided to launch missiles on March 2. If there is a breakthrough, Lebanon has a lot to gain,” but said it has to “disarm Hezbollah.”

The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment.

Macron has faced accusations over the years that he has normalized Hezbollah. His government, in contrast to Germany, the U.S., Canada, the Netherlands, Japan, Austria and many other Western and non-Western countries, refuses to designate Hezbollah’s entire organization a terrorist entity. France has classified Hezbollah’s “military wing” a terrorist organization but declined to ban its “political wing.” Hezbollah considers itself a unified movement without branches.

The French politician François-Xavier Bellamy, who is a member of the European Parliament for the Republicans Party, said last week on French television that “France must stop normalizing Hezbollah.” Macron sparked outrage in 2020 when he reportedly held a private conversation with a top elected Hezbollah official, according to the Paris-based daily Le Figaro.

Smoke rises from Israeli airstrikes in Dahiyeh, a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, April 5, 2026. (Emilio Morenatti/AP)

Edy Cohen, an Israeli security expert on Hezbollah, who was born in Lebanon, told Fox News Digital, “France is forced not to come out against Hezbollah in order to legitimize its involvement in Lebanon.”

A French diplomat told the Times of Israel that “what we are hoping for is not a ticket to the meeting, but that Israel stops its offensive on Lebanon.”

When asked if France would pressure Lebanon to recognize Israel as a state, Pascal Confavreux, a spokesman for France’s Foreign Ministry, told “Fox News Sunday” that, “Iran has to stop terrorizing Israel through Hezbollah because Hezbollah chose to bring Lebanon into a war which is not Lebanon’s war… Lebanon has to be included in the ceasefire, something that we are pushing diplomatically.” He continued that we are in favor of direct talks between Lebanon and Israel.

It is not known if France asked for a seat at the talks. Fox News Digital sent multiple press queries to France’s embassies in Washington, D.C., and Tel Aviv.

IDF UNCOVERS HEZBOLLAH WEAPONS STASH INSIDE HOSPITAL IN LEBANON

Hezbollah launches long-range missiles from Lebanon into northern Israel within 48 hours of strikes on Iran, escalating the widening conflict amid Operation Epic Fury. (Hadi Mizban/AP)

On Saturday, Macron again pushed his desire for a ceasefire and wrote on X that he had discussions with Iran’s President Massoud Pezeshkian: “I stressed the importance of full respect for the ceasefire, including in Lebanon. France extends its full support to the actions of the Lebanese authorities, who alone are legitimate to exercise the sovereignty of the State and decide the destiny of Lebanon.”

Walid Phares, an expert on Lebanon and the region, told Fox News Digital that while the talks are important, problems exist. “It is at ambassadors’ level, which means it is not destined to reach a top level of decision-making.”

He added, “Strangely, the Lebanese president and prime minister declined to invite the Lebanese foreign minister to the Washington talks, provoking a representation by Israel, also at ambassadorial level, showing that Hezbollah still has a strong influence on the Lebanese government. The militia is being rejected by the population on the ground and fears a meeting in D.C. would ostracize Hezbollah further.”

Iran rebuilds Hezbollah ties as Trump gives a 10-15 day deadline. (Fadel Itani/NurPhoto)

Sethrida Geagea, a member of parliament from the Lebanese Forces party, posted on X ahead of the Israel-Lebanon talks an open letter to Nabih Berri, the powerful speaker of the Lebanese Parliament and leader of the Shiite Amal Movement. She issued indirect criticism of Hezbollah and its terrorist army within the state. Geagea appealed to Berri to unify the Lebanese to be “protected by a single army.”

Without naming Hezbollah, her letter stated that young Shiites have been plunged into war that has nothing to do with them and the conflict is really about an Iranian decision to retaliate for the joint U.S.-Israel war that killed the Islamic Republic’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on February 28.

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The State Department did not immediately respond to a Fox News Digital press query.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Benjamin Weinthal reports on Israel, Iran, Syria, Turkey and Europe. You can follow Benjamin on Twitter @BenWeinthal, and email him at benjamin.weinthal@fox.com

World

Mass drone warfare is Europe’s rising security threat

Published

2 hours ago

April 14, 2026

Press Room

Mass drone warfare is Europe’s rising security threat

Modern wars consume drones at a much higher rate than traditional ammunition. Ukraine uses approximately 9.000 drones per day, roughly 270.000 units monthly. Estimates suggest that Iran can produce approximately 400 Shahed drones per day, for a monthly capacity of up to 12.000 units.

This staggering churn is pushing the EU towards mass-scale industrial production, as existing drone stockpiles and manual manufacturing cannot keep pace with battlefield losses.

The bloc’s inability to scale production is creating a strategic dependency on external suppliers like the US or China, leaving its borders vulnerable to disposable, “cheap” warfare that the current industrial pace cannot sustain.

To counter this vulnerability, the EU has launched the 2026 European Drone Defence Initiative (EDDI), to build a multi-layered, 360-degree shield of interoperable counter-drone systems by 2027.

Complementing the EDDI is the Drone Alliance with Ukraine, which leverages battlefield-tested expertise to co-produce millions of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

Utmost strategic importance

Drones went from niche tools to key war instruments because of three advantages: low cost, constant surveillance, and precision strike capability.

In Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, both sides rely on drones for reconnaissance and targeting. Commercial quadcopters, which can cost just a few hundred euros, spot enemy positions and guide artillery in real time. This shortens the time between detection and destruction from hours to minutes. Larger systems, such as Turkey’s Bayraktar TB2, were used to destroy supply convoys and air defence systems early in the conflict, which set a new international war standard.

“Drones evolve technologically every three to six months. So, it’s also challenging to buy millions of drones that will be obsolete in 12 months from now”, shared Nikolaus Lang, Global Leader at BCG Henderson Institute.

Drones are cheap to produce, but expensive to defend against. In traditional wars, destroying a target required expensive aircraft or missiles, until Ukraine showed that today, a cheap “kamikaze” drone can destroy equipment worth millions.

Russia used many Iranian Shahed drones, each relatively inexpensive, to strike Ukrainian infrastructure. But defending against them requires pricey air-defence missiles or fighter jets, which creates a strategic imbalance where the defender spends far more than the attacker.

“Europe needs cheaper and quicker solutions”, said Jamie Shea, former NATO official, Senior Fellow at Friends of Europe and Senior Advisor at the European Policy Centre in Brussels. “The EU uses very expensive means to neutralise drones. You’ve seen in Iran, where $3 million missiles are used to shoot down drones of just a couple of thousand dollars”, he said.

Military analysts from the Centre for Strategic and International Studies describe drones as one of the most disruptive economic shifts in warfare in decades.

Drones also democratise air power. In earlier conflicts, only advanced dominated the air, but this changed during the Nagorno-Karabakh War as Azerbaijani forces used drones to systematically destroy Armenian tanks and artillery.

In the Gaza Strip, both state forces and non-state actors use modified commercial drones for surveillance and attacks. Now even relatively small or poorly equipped groups can carry out aerial operations, which lowers the barrier for effective military force.

Europe falls behind

For Europe, urgency stems from external threats and internal weaknesses. Drone incidents near critical infrastructure quadrupled between 2024 and 2025. In September, Copenhagen and Oslo closed airports after “several large drones” caused 109 cancellations and 51 reroutes. A month later, Munich Airport closed twice in 24 hours for the same reason.

The strategic concern is that the EU is not yet structured for a “drone-saturated” battlefield or security environment. Recent incidents forced costly responses: for example, in September of 2025, approximately 20 Russian drones entered Polish airspace, so NATO deployed F-35 fighter jets to neutralize the threat, which cost at least €1.2 million.

To avoid this, Shea explained that the EU should develop advanced sensor technology, including a 360-degree sensor aperture that shoots down malicious drones.

Ramping up production

The EU supplies less than 30 per cent of its own military drone needs. By comparison, China and Ukraine produce millions of units annually, while the US is scaling up to hundreds of thousands.

To address this, the Commission launched an industrial push to fundamentally restructure drone design, production, and deployment. The goal is scale: faster production cycles, higher volumes, and lower costs, because modern drone warfare is less about sophistication and more about quick, adaptable mass production.

Traditional European defence procurement is slow, often taking years from concept to deployment. This approach seeks to shorten timelines through modular designs, faster testing, and continuous upgrades, enabling rapid drone adaptation. So, the Commission introduced AGILE (fast-track funding), the EU Defence Innovation Scheme, and BraveTech EU.

Low-cost production is another pillar, with initiatives focused on affordability, scalability, and dual-use manufacturing. The EU is engaging civilian industries (e.g., automotive, electronics) and SMEs, which are more agile than large contractors and better suited to rapid prototyping and innovation. Funding tools will support efforts across member states.

Europe has massively levelled up its defence R&D investments, but it’s still not enough, according to Lang. He pointed out that the “US invested more than $900 billion, Europe only $450 billion altogether”.

The EU will also rely on the Drone Alliance with Ukraine; a 2024 multinational military partnership created to secure Ukraine’s UAV supply through constant deliveries of drones tailored to frontline requirements.

The Alliance allowed the EU to establish a network of factories for Ukrainian-designed drones on European soil. So European firms can bypass traditional bureaucracy by testing new prototypes on the front lines in weeks rather than years.

The alliance is boosted by billions from frozen Russian assets, specifically set to scale up production of low-cost autonomous systems. This collaboration wants to deliver over two million drones annually by 2030.

These initiatives should reduce dependence on non-European suppliers, alongside efforts to secure supply chains for critical drone components (like semiconductors, sensors, and communication systems) within EU borders and among trusted partners.

A key tool is the planned “EU trusted drone” label, to certify systems that meet security and reliability standards. It’s designed to guide procurement decisions, encourage the use of European-made technologies, and ultimately create a more self-sufficient and resilient drone ecosystem.

EU policy meets military drones

Russia’s violation of NATO airspace (37 times since 2022) and the war in Iran pushed the EU to start redefining its defence strategy, shifting from civil drone regulation to security measures and funding initiatives.

The Commission’s 2026 Action Plan on Drone and Counter-Drone Security addresses the use of drones in conflicts that target critical infrastructure, borders, and airspace. It targets the EU’s real-time detection capacities and develops a unified defence approach against malicious operations.

It also boosts member states’ industrial cooperation and drone markets to reduce dependence on non-EU suppliers. Investing in the small niche companies, where innovation lies, is key. “Europe needs to create greater risk, expand our venture capital market, and simplify procurement regulatory barriers”, Shea argued.

The roadmap focuses on four priorities: boosting resilience through industrial ramp-up, improving threat detection through stronger surveillance, responding and defending with a coordinated strategy, and strengthening the EU’s defence readiness.

Detecting and tracking threats requires advanced AI-powered technological infrastructure. The Commission foresees accelerating technological development by using 5G networks to improve real-time threat detection.

The action plan is strong as “it identifies the problem and mobilises resources”, Shea said. Yet the EU needs to learn from Ukraine’s drone strategy: “Ukraine is doing 50 per cent of the work for us. It’s developing the intelligence and offering to share sensitive data. It’s also showing Europe how AI should be integrated into counter-drone technology”.

The EDDI is a key part of the action plan, and it acts as a shield for the bloc’s airspace. Through its multi-layered, interoperable system, the initiative detects, tracks and defends the EU from hybrid threats and drone incursions.

Running on AI-powered sensing and counter-drone technologies, the EDDI supports the Eastern Flank Watch, which is also part of the Commission’s Defence Readiness Roadmap 2030. It is an EU-NATO initiative to protect the EU’s border with Russia and Belarus, using specialised counter-drone technologies and boosting air defence, surveillance, and rapid threat response while improving cooperation with NATO operations, such as Eastern Sentry and Baltic Air Policing.

Security and defence remain national

Though the EU is shifting towards scalable, networked, AI-driven, and mass-produced warfare equipment, defence and security remain national, meaning that member states have individual defence priorities and budgets. Fragmented national procurement practices, critical infrastructure protection, and different rules governing drone and counter-drone systems obstruct Europe’s new defence strategy.

Shea warned that Europe should establish a common legal framework so that all member states can develop and test drone technology equally.

“European states need to monitor the same airspace all the time, so that somebody in France is looking at the same air picture as somebody in Poland or Estonia”, he underlined.

Another issue? Fragmented national investments in drone innovation. “Some countries, like Denmark or Germany, have been much more upfront than others, also in forming joint ventures with Ukrainian manufacturers”, Shea said.

Likewise, 80 per cent of EU procurement is at national level. “We need many more of these initiatives to overcome the fragmentation of defence procurement”, warned Lang.

According to Shea, the EU should also eliminate bureaucratic obstacles to enable sensitive information sharing, such as drone threat intelligence and airspace monitoring, between member states.

“Drones are getting faster and sharing information is fundamental, but the EU needs to ensure safe security protocols to encourage countries to share data”.