Finland will apply for €35 million in EU funding to procure drone detection and counter-drone systems for its eastern border and the Gulf of Finland, in a move linking national border security more directly to the EU’s wider response to hybrid threats.

Finland has decided to apply for €35 million in EU funding to strengthen its ability to detect, monitor and counter drones along the eastern border and in the Gulf of Finland, according to a Finnish government press release published on 9 April. The decision was agreed by the Ministerial Committee on Economic Policy, which said the application would be submitted under the EU’s Border Management and Visa Instrument, known as the BMVI.

According to the government, the planned procurement would cover systems to improve Finland’s ability to identify and follow unmanned aircraft and, where necessary, to counter them. The statement said the equipment would significantly improve surveillance capability at the eastern border and in the Gulf of Finland, while also giving Finland a more developed capacity to respond to drone activity directly. The procurements are expected to take place mainly in the period from 2027 to 2029.

The financing structure is also important. Helsinki said the EU contribution would cover 90 per cent of the costs, with the total national package therefore amounting to more than the headline EU grant alone. The government said the money could be used not only for equipment and systems, but also for integration work and training. That makes the decision more than a narrow purchase announcement. It points to a broader effort to build an operational counter-drone capability rather than simply acquire hardware.

The Finnish statement places the move firmly within an EU security framework. It says the Commission’s call for proposals is targeted at member states facing increased and complex pressure on border security, including hostile or disruptive activities at external borders, the instrumentalisation of migrants, and wider hybrid threats. The call is designed to help member states improve surveillance capability by acquiring drone systems and counter-drone systems, with a total of €250 million made available.

That line is consistent with the European Commission’s Action Plan on Drone and Counter Drone Security, presented in February, which set out a wider EU approach to the rising security risks posed by drones and included a €250 million counter-drone deployment initiative aimed at protecting critical infrastructure and the EU’s external borders. The Finnish application is therefore not an isolated national step. It fits into a larger European effort to treat drones not only as a commercial or technological issue, but as a growing border-security and internal-security challenge.

For Finland, the geography matters. The eastern border is both a national frontier and part of the EU’s external border, while the Gulf of Finland is strategically sensitive for maritime traffic, regional security and infrastructure protection. A decision to focus specifically on those areas suggests the government is looking at drones in both land-border and maritime terms. It also reflects a broader trend in northern Europe, where surveillance, resilience and border protection are increasingly treated as overlapping security questions rather than separate policy compartments.

The BMVI itself is intended to support integrated border management at the Union’s external borders while safeguarding free movement inside the EU. In the Finnish government’s account, the instrument can be used to finance actions supporting European integrated border management and the common visa policy. In practical terms, this means border technology is now being funded within a framework that combines migration management, internal security and external-border control. The counter-drone application sits squarely in that model.

The announcement does not set out the exact systems to be bought, nor does it provide technical details on detection ranges, effectors or rules for operational use. That is a notable limitation. What it does provide is a clear policy direction: Finland wants to expand its ability to identify and respond to drone activity in strategically exposed areas, and it intends to do so with substantial EU co-financing. In that sense, the decision is as much about the structure of European security funding as it is about the equipment itself.

The timing is also significant. Across Europe, drones are increasingly being discussed in relation to border incidents, infrastructure vulnerability, organised disruption and military spillover from the wider security environment. The Commission’s counter-drone action plan explicitly frames the issue as an EU security challenge requiring coordinated action, and Finland’s application shows how that policy language is now translating into member-state procurement plans.

For Brussels as well as Helsinki, this is likely to become a wider test case. If approved, the Finnish programme would show how quickly the EU can move from policy declarations on hybrid threats and drone security to concrete capability-building at sensitive external borders. It would also underline a broader shift in European security policy: border surveillance is no longer only about migration routes and conventional patrol systems, but increasingly about contested airspace at very low altitude and the technologies needed to control it.

Main Image: Flyhigh2020 – Own work

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