PARIS — Dutch defense-technology startup Intelic said it set up a European military drone marketplace that brings together drone manufacturers from nine European countries, in a bid to speed up procurement by allowing militaries to compare various available unmanned systems.
With the European drone market fragmented, the new marketplace will “significantly shorten” the process of buying mission-ready drones, Intelic said in a statement on Monday. The company said defense ministries can use the platform, called BASE, to shop for drones from different manufacturers that can work together via its Nexus command-and-control software.
“Our main principle is that governments here can buy plug-and-play systems they know will work within their organization, without having to adjust training and such too much,” Intelic Chief Executive Officer and co-founder Maurits Korthals Altes told Defense News in an emailed reply to questions.
BASE was inspired by procurement models developed in Ukraine, according to Intelic. Ukraine’s Brave1 platform, which connects frontline units with drone manufacturers, has been credited with helping the country field new unmanned capabilities at an unprecedented pace and turning Ukraine into a crucible for drone-warfare innovation.
The company is finalizing an agreement to provide the Royal Netherlands Army’s drone units with its Nexus software that will also give the Dutch access to the procurement platform, Korthals Altes said. Intelic is in talks with several other European ministries of defense, though the CEO declined to name them, saying that could hurt ongoing talks.
Drone manufacturers signed up for the marketplace include Portugal’s Tekever and Beyond Vision, the Netherlands’ DeltaQuad, Avy, Acecore Technologies and Height Technologies, Germany’s Highcat, Latvia’s Origin Robotics and Slovakia’s Airvolute, according to Korthals Altes. The partners also include drone makers from France, the United Kingdom and Ukraine, Intelic said.
Delivering drones acquired via the BASE marketplace will be the responsibility of the manufacturers, and is not something Intelic will guarantee, the CEO said. Intelic will, however, guarantee interoperability through its Nexus software, though Korthals Altes said additional software developers could join in a later phase.
The Intelic marketplace specifically targets unmanned aerial vehicles for now, with plans to add other types of unmanned systems in the future, the CEO said. He said the drone makers signed up for the first stage are expected to generate combined sales of more than €1.5 billion (US$1.76 billion) this year.
BASE will allow defense ministries to explore systems that are ready to be used in a coalition framework, according to Korthals Altes. One difference with Brave1 is that Ukrainian military units can buy directly from their marketplace, something European Union procurement is not set up for, the CEO said.
The platform will allow buyers to access confidential information about the systems and their use cases, as well as the application of the Nexus software, Korthals Altes said. In a next step, Intelic will add “full life-cycle support,” for example by adding feedback and maintenance requests, he said.
Interoperability between drones from different manufacturers is achieved by having them all run on Intelic’s Nexus command-and-control software, unlike systems offered on a generic marketplace, according to Korthals Altes. “Ultimately, it all comes down to addressing fragmentation.”
Intelic’s Nexus software has been in use in Ukraine since 2025, including by Gurzuf Defence for its Heavy Shot family of drones, and the Dutch startup has also been working to integrate its software on Skyeton’s Raybird UAV platform.
Nexus has “some overlap” with products such as Anduril’s Lattice command-and-control software, according to Korthals Altes, though he said there are important differences, with Intelic’s software primarily platform-agnostic. “We don’t sell hardware; that makes us flexible and much more ecosystem focused.”
Being able to quickly identify interoperable capabilities available in Europe has become a strategic priority, yet procurement remains fragmented, slowing down deployment and reducing visibility of what systems are available, according to Intelic. Ensuring interoperability before any purchasing decision reduces integration risks and cuts time to deployment, the company said.
“For many MoDs, it’s still very much a matter of figuring out exactly what they need and how all of that should work together,” Korthals Altes said. “A large part of accelerating the process therefore also involves supporting the MoD in that decision-making process.”
The CEO said the next steps will be to add more drone manufacturers and countries to BASE. “Our goal is to persuade Europe.”
Rudy Ruitenberg is a Europe correspondent for Defense News. He started his career at Bloomberg News and has experience reporting on technology, commodity markets and politics.
