Europe's main military powers to develop low-cost air-defence systems

By Barbara Erling

KRAKOW, Poland, ‌Feb 20 (Reuters) - Europe's ​five ​biggest defence powers are teaming up on a multi-million euro project to bring low-cost air-defence systems like autonomous drones or ‌missiles into production within 12 months, ministers meeting in the Polish ⁠city of Krakow said on Friday.

The war in Ukraine has shown how autonomous interceptor ‌drones can provide an effective ‌alternative to costly air-defence missiles, and Kyiv's European allies are keen to learn from its experience.

The European Group of Five Defence Ministers, which ​brings together top military spenders France, Germany, Italy, Poland and Britain, met as European leaders work to boost defence capabilities amid increased European ⁠doubts about Washington's commitment to protecting the continent.

"It's a multi-million pound, multi-million euro commitment ... to step ​up this technology," Britain's Minister for Defence Readiness and Industry Luke Pollard said.

"We're really hopeful that this will produce ​an effector that... will be in production ‌within 12 months."

In military terminology, "effectors" are the components of a system that produce a physical effect, while "autonomous platforms" are ⁠unmanned systems capable of independent decision-making.

The 'Low-Cost Effectors and Autonomous Platforms' initiative, known as LEAP, involves the development of advanced low-cost air-defence systems - such as autonomous drones or ⁠missiles - the first project of which will be delivered by 2027, the UK government ​said in a separate statement.

"We have just signed a very important commitment on the joint development of drone-based strike capabilities, low-cost, joint production, and joint procurement of low-cost ‌drone effectors and payloads," Polish Defence Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz said.

"This is the challenge of our times - technologies are ‌changing... and we must respond very quickly."

(Reporting by Barbara Erling in Krakow, Pawel ⁠Florkiewicz in Warsaw, Lili Bayer ‌in Brussels, M Muvija ​in London, Ludwig Burger in Frankfurt, Benoit Van Overstraeten in Paris: Writing by Alan Charlish; Editing by David Holmes and ‌Philippa Fletcher)

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