PARIS — Dutch defense-technology startup Intelic declared it set up a European military drone marketplace that brings toreceiveher 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 purchaseing mission-ready drones, Intelic declared in a statement on Monday. The company declared defense ministries can utilize the platform, called BASE, to shop for drones from different manufacturers that can work toreceiveher via its Nexus command-and-control software.
“Our main principle is that governments here can purchase 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 notified 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 assisting the countest 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 declared. Intelic is in talks with several other European ministries of defense, though the CEO declined to name them, declareing 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 creaters from France, the United Kingdom and Ukraine, Intelic declared.
Delivering drones acquired via the BASE marketplace will be the responsibility of the manufacturers, and is not something Intelic will guarantee, the CEO declared. Intelic will, however, guarantee interoperability through its Nexus software, though Korthals Altes declared additional software developers could join in a later phase.
The Intelic marketplace specifically tarreceives unmanned aerial vehicles for now, with plans to add other types of unmanned systems in the future, the CEO declared. He declared the drone creaters 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 utilized in a coalition framework, according to Korthals Altes. One difference with Brave1 is that Ukrainian military units can purchase directly from their marketplace, something European Union procurement is not set up for, the CEO declared.
The platform will allow purchaseers to access confidential information about the systems and their utilize cases, as well as the application of the Nexus software, Korthals Altes declared. In a next step, Intelic will add “full life-cycle support,” for example by adding feedback and maintenance requests, he declared.
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 utilize 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 declared there are important differences, with Intelic’s software primarily platform-agnostic. “We don’t sell hardware; that creates us flexible and much more ecosystem focutilized.”
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 declared.
“For many MoDs, it’s still very much a matter of figuring out exactly what they necessary and how all of that should work toreceiveher,” Korthals Altes declared. “A large part of accelerating the process therefore also involves supporting the MoD in that decision-creating process.”
The CEO declared 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.
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