Pilots not included¶

The drone’s plans came with money, milestones and production figures. People turn up in them as a target to be met by a date, a headline on a factory and an item on a list of bottlenecks.

A number with a deadline¶

The Commission’s readiness roadmap lists the “Reskilling of 200,000 employees for the defence industry by 2026”, between a plan for supply-chain risks and the next long-term budget. In September 2026 the page carried the target and no count of anyone reskilled against it.

The civil strategy of 2022 had its own figure, 145,000 jobs by 2030, “with the right framework in place”. Europe now has two workforce numbers for the drone, one for each of its careers.

Fifth on the list¶

At the first board meeting of the EU-Ukraine Drone Alliance, Kubilius invited the companies to “Speak out about your bottlenecks: components, testing slots, certification, intellectual property, skilled staff.”

Skilled staff came fifth, after the testing slots.

Up to a thousand¶

In September 2025 the UK Ministry of Defence announced a drone factory in Swindon, “creating 1,000 high-skilled British jobs”. Further down the same release, the company operating it, Tekever, speaks of “creating up to 1,000 highly skilled jobs over the next five years”.

The ministry counted the jobs. The company counted the years.

Permission to fire¶

The watching had already been handed out. In Denmark the police asked anyone who saw a drone to film it with their phone, and the Danish Defence says it “kan nedtage droner over militære installationer”, can take down drones over military installations, depending on the threat assessment and the possible consequences of doing so.

By October 2025, the Parliament’s researchers recorded, “Six European NATO allies have declared that they will use force to defend their airspace, with Lithuania authorising peacetime drone shoot-downs.” In February 2026 the UK announced that defence personnel “will be given stronger powers to defeat drones near bases” through the Armed Forces Bill.

The drone was designed to need nobody on board. Everything around it needs somebody, and the somebodies are the part of the plan that comes with the fewest figures.