European Commission backs €115 million AGILE defence innovation programme

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EU AGILE defence initiative

Highlights

European Commission adopted the €115 million AGILE defence innovation programme in less than seven months to accelerate defence technology deployment.
AGILE will support 20 to 30 projects with up to 100% funding, targeting SMEs, start-ups, and scale-ups, including retroactive expense claims.
Programme becomes fully operational in early 2027 and allows participation from Ukraine and EFTA-EEA countries, expanding EU defence innovation capacity.

Funding model targets faster defence deployment

As reported by European Commission, the Regulation establishing the Programme for agile and rapid defence innovation, AGILE, has now been adopted after the Commission tabled the proposal in March 2026. The institution says the programme was approved in less than seven months, reflecting the bloc's push to strengthen its defence innovation capacity.

AGILE is set to support between 20 and 30 projects and provide up to 100% funding for all eligible costs. The scheme is aimed at small and medium-sized enterprises, including start-ups and scale-ups, and also allows companies to retroactively claim expenses incurred up to three months before the closing date of an application call.

The work programme covers two main areas, mission-driven development of disruptive defence products and technologies, and support for bringing those solutions to market. The Commission says the mechanism is intended to move new technologies from the lab to the field at record speed.

Broader EU defence innovation push

Russia's war in Ukraine is showing how battlefield performance depends on technologies such as drones, autonomous systems and artificial intelligence. Against that backdrop, the EU is testing whether it can develop, trial and deploy cost-efficient defence technologies in weeks or months rather than years.

The programme is expected to become fully operational in early 2027, while the Commission prepares implementation to be monitored and assessed by the Council and the European Parliament. AGILE complements existing EU tools including the European Defence Fund, the EU Defence Innovation Scheme, the European Defence Industrial Programme and the European Innovation Council.

Entities from Ukraine and EFTA-EEA countries are also eligible to participate, broadening the pool of defence innovation expertise available to the programme. The Commission says this wider participation should help support the scaling and uptake of new defence solutions across the region.

Our earlier article on Airbus’ Valkyrie autonomous combat drone project for Germany covered the first European test flight of the platform and the roadmap toward combat readiness by 2029. We noted that the programme aims to integrate a European mission system and ultimately team the uncrewed aircraft with Eurofighter jets, highlighting how quickly Europe is trying to turn emerging drone capabilities into deployable military tools.

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