Nokia, Nvidia, defence firms back EU-funded drone infrastructure oversight project

By Nathan Vifflin

(Reuters) -A consortium of more than 42 organizations, led by Nokia, will work on an unmanned drone project aimed at protecting and bolstering the resilience of Europe's most critical infrastructures, the Finnish network equipment maker said on Wednesday.

The member organizations, which include start-ups and universities, will build new capabilities such as laser or radar sensors on top of hardware platforms like drones built by defence companies.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has highlighted the European Union's inability to protect its vital systems, a vulnerability starkly underscored by drone warfare's increasing capacity to inflict devastation deep within adverse territory.

"Safeguarding of our critical infrastructure has not always been a first priority," project leader Thomas Eder at Nokia said in an interview with Reuters, adding that EU-funding for a similar venture did not come through only a few years earlier.

The project is funded in part by participating countries, companies and the EU under its Chips Joint Undertaking programme, which also allows non-EU countries such as Israel to participate.

Among companies involved in the venture were Nvidia and European defence firms Safran, Leonardo and Saab.

Nokia is looking to do more around defence as its new CEO has identified the sector as one of the company's priority areas, alongside data centres and AI, a Nokia spokesperson said.

The aerial, ground and underwater robot project, initially scheduled to run for three years, is expected to generate 90 million euros ($102.7 million) in revenue by 2035, according to a statement seen by Reuters.

Nokia was not able to confirm the total funding numbers for the project.

While the initiative is targeted for civil security, when asked if it could be later spun-off into a dual-use project for defence purposes, Eder said, "I think it is highly possible."

"But for the time being, this is a critical infrastructure project for power lines, for power plants, for railways, for ports, for any type of power grid applications," he said.

($1 = 0.8767 euros)

(Reporting by Nathan Vifflin in Amsterdam, additional reporting by Supantha Mukherjee, editing by Milla Nissi-Prussak)