SKYWARDEN © MBDA

By the end of October 2025, Frontex – the European Border and Coast Guard Agency – successfully completed the final testing phase of its contest, designed to tackle the use of drones for illegal activities at the EU's borders, and designed MBDA and its solution SKY WARDEN as the best system to protect the EU’s borders.

Hosted by the Portuguese Air Force at Campo de Tiro base in Samora Correia, this contest aimed to evaluate various border protection systems in real-world conditions, supporting European law enforcement with non-military tools to detect, track, and stop drones used in unlawful cross-border activities, and therefore to identify the most effective counter-drone solution for the EU.

During several weeks, five DTIB companies demonstrated concretely how their own technology acts against simulated drones attacks and threats, executed by an external company. The selected systems were tested for detection accuracy, flexibility, and suitability for use by border and coast guard teams across Europe.

To counter various scenario of increasing difficulty, including multiple drone attacks unknown to participants, MBDA deployed and implemented its anti-drone system SKY WARDEN. Implemented with different types of radars, radio frequency sensors, and high-precision optronic sensors to detect, recognize, classify, and identify the types of threats, SKY WARDEN proposed the best type of effectors, such as jamming, « Spoofing » and/or drone catchers equipped with nets, for neutralizing the threats. At the end of contest, the MBDA system proved to be fully satisfactory, allowing no drones to cross the border.

This contest win showcases MBDA's expertise in designing and producing cutting-edge solutions to counter UAVs, thereby protecting Europe against current and future threats.