Dutch Ministry of Defence issues Counter Strike Drone Challenge tender to combat enemy drones

The companies' proposals must align with a clearly defined operational objective. This means they're not about a single product, but rather solutions that actually work in practice. These include, for example, new ways to spot, identify, or disable drones.

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Enemy territory

There's a unique aspect to this. With this challenge, the Ministry of Defence focuses on neutralizing an enemy drone as quickly as possible, even if it's in enemy territory. So, there's no waiting for a drone to land over allied territory.

During Purple NECtar X Innovation in Defence, two Iranian Shahed drones shot down by Ukraine were on display. These showed how great the threat of hostile unmanned aircraft can be. As a country, you want to prevent that.

The new challenge should help identify and deploy existing solutions in the market more quickly. Companies with a sound plan can count on a long-term collaboration with the Ministry of Defence. In this way, the organization builds a long-term partnership with these companies to continue their joint development.

Collaborating with the market

The challenge was organized in collaboration with Defport, a public-private platform of the Ministries of Defense and Economic Affairs. Within Defport, government, industry, financial institutions, and knowledge institutes collaborate intensively. They discuss, among other things, how to develop and finance innovative products more quickly.

The Ministry of Defence wants to further strengthen this collaboration. In addition to the challenge, the organization is therefore opening Mindbases. These are places where the Ministry of Defence and businesses can meet. Furthermore, the Ministry of Defence is entering into a partnership agreement with the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO.nl) to make collaboration easier for businesses.

Want to register? Visit the Counter Strike Drone Challenge on Tendernet.