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Project aims to protect Europe's critical infrastructure

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Drones to watch energy grids, data centres, communication

lines

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Potential for later dual-use defence applications

By Nathan Vifflin

June 4 (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 ( NVDA )

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)