C-UAS: Europe's answer to the drone threat
No future topic was more visible at ILA 2026 than counter-drone defence, from the new Drone Pavilion to a series of industry agreements.
Deals · ILA Berlin 2026 Photo: Messe Berlin / Johannes Zappe Defence becomes a matter of alliances
Airbus deepens its air defence cooperation with Diehl, brings Alta Ares on board for AI interceptors and puts Quantum interceptor drones on military helicopters.
The drone threat has pushed air defence to the top of the agenda, and ILA Berlin 2026 became the stage for Europe's answer. Airbus Defence and Space and Diehl Defence agreed to intensify their cooperation in integrated air and missile defence: Airbus command-and-control meets the combat-proven IRIS-T family, designed as a scalable solution within the European Sky Shield Initiative.
Two agreements with young companies followed: with Alta Ares, Airbus agreed to integrate AI-supported interceptor drones into its air defence architecture, while the Franco-German start-up announced a 50-million-euro funding round in parallel. And Airbus Helicopters brought Quantum Systems on board to integrate interceptor drones into military helicopters, starting with the H145M.
Hardware to touch in the Defence Park
The Defence Park showed what the defence looks like in practice: Diehl presented the IRIS-T SLS Mk.4, a highly mobile launcher with eight ready-to-fire missiles and a range of twelve kilometres. Laser systems, networked sensors and the new Drone Pavilion completed the picture, bringing manufacturers, armed forces and decision-makers together.
The sum of these announcements makes ILA the marketplace of an emerging ecosystem: anyone developing, procuring or integrating counter-drone capabilities met all the players in Berlin within five days.