Terra Drone's Unifly wins $940K EU defence grant for counter-drone work
What's the deal? Unifly, the Belgium-based drone traffic management subsidiary of Japan's Terra Drone, has secured a grant worth €849,769 (about ¥150 million, or roughly $940,000) from the European Defence FundDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →. The money backs SPECTRE, a 24-month research project to help defence and security teams tell authorised drones apart from potential threats.
What's the endgame? SPECTRE combines Unifly's air-traffic-management data with counter-drone systems, so operators can match detected drones against approved flight plans. The goal is to flag three categories — authorised flights, unverified drones, and potential threats — and link that to electronic or physical countermeasures.
Why now? Drones near military sites, airports, and critical infrastructure have become a pressing European security concern. The European CommissionDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → is widening defence R&D spending through the fund, which committed €1.07 billion to 57 projects in its 2025 round, with drone and counter-drone systems a priority.
What could go wrong? The sum is a modest R&D award, not a major financing round. Terra Drone says the project will not materially affect its results for the year ending January 2027.
Unifly has already deployed national-level traffic management for Belgium's defence forces, and it has taken part in 18 EU-funded projects since 2016, drawing €5 million in total. SPECTRE runs with partners across Belgium, Germany, Italy, Romania, and Estonia, led by Agile Systems Engineering.
"When a drone is detected near a sensitive site, the first thing to check is whether that flight is authorised," said Jürgen Verstaen, Unifly co-founder and director of sales and innovation (translated from Japanese).
The signal: The award is less about the cash than the positioning. As Europe pushes drone defence from research toward deployment, Unifly is moving from civil traffic management into the security market — a toehold in a sector drawing heavy EU money.
Read more: prtimes.jp
Image credit: desoda
