Switzerland's Drone Dilemma

(MENAFN- Swissinfo) Switzerland prides itself on being the“Silicon Valley of Robotics” and pours public money into a cutting-edge research and start-up scene. In the age of drone wars, the military industry is a lucrative market for Swiss innovations – but engaging with it clashes with Switzerland's neutrality.

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As Ukraine and Russia race to scale up their fleets of drones, the Ukrainian army can count on technology by a spin-off of one of Switzerland's foremost technical universities. Auterion, a company co-founded in 2017 by Lorenz Meier to market an open-source drone autopilot he developed as a student at the federal technology institute ETH Zurich, announcedExternal link in June it had introduced“game-changing drone technology for kinetic military use to ramp up support for democracies looking to defend against aggressors.” Shortly before, it had relocated its headquarters from Zurich to Arlington, Virginia, a major base for the US military industry.

Meier, who now is the CEO, saidExternal link Auterion had“been quietly building” a new AI computer and flight controller for kamikaze drones, which hadExternal link“already been proven in combat.” The key innovation of the so-called Skynode S system is that it enables drones to fly to hit targets even when confronted with electronic warfare measures like GPS jamming.

For Switzerland, such bold military engagement by a company that still has an R&D office in Zurich is problematic. Since 1910External link , the country is boundExternal link by The Hague Convention on neutrality to treat all parties to a conflict equally, and it has interpreted this obligation narrowly by prohibitingExternal link weapons exports to countries at war.

Auterion is not the only company of the Swiss drones ecosystem whose technology, intentionally or unintentionally, has reached the battlefield. SenseFly, a spin-off from the Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) that started outExternal link in the agricultural sector, was acquired by AgEagle, another US-based company. It now suppliesExternal link its tactical mapping drone eBee, upgradedExternal link with a camouflage skin for stealth, to the US military, which used itExternal link in the war in Afghanistan.
But this is not all. Chips by ETH Zurich spin-off U-Blox were foundExternal link in Russian Orlan-10 drones used in Ukraine. And an algorithm developed at the University of Zurich to steer drones in GPS-deprived environments eerily resembles an application promoted by Israeli defence contractor Elbit.

Swiss public agencies and universities such as ETH Zurich and the national innovation agency Innosuisse have facilitated cutting-edge research and tech transfer initiatives in the drone industry, giving riseExternal link to leading labs and more than a hundred start-ups. They have, however, consistently stressed that these are geared to a non-military use such as industrial inspections, cargo services or rescue operations.

The National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) Robotics, a strategic initiativeExternal link by the Swiss National Science Foundation that had a budget of CHF85 million External link ($98 million) over 12 years, emphasisedExternal link a research focus on robots that would“improve the quality of life”. Its follow-up programme, the Innovation Booster Robotics funded byExternal link Innosuisse, aims atExternal link promoting knowledge-transfer along the entire value chain of robotics but does not support military applications, according to its leader, professor Aude Billard.

“ETH Zurich conducts research for the civilian sector,” the university's vice president for tech transfer, Vanessa Wood, told SWI swissinfo when asked about Auterion's shiftExternal link from a company with a non-weapons policy to military supplier.

“We carefully examine in advance whether a project and the resulting findings and insights could also be used for military purposes and would therefore be subject to export controls.” But at a time when drones are being used in wars as cheap, tactical and efficient weapons, such claims ring increasingly hollow.

Drone technology cannot be neatly categorised as civilian or military per se, said Andrew W. Reddie, who runs the Berkeley Risk and Security Lab at the University of California.“Ultimately, these technologies are dual-use by definition, so there is a danger in terms of governments providing support for a core technology that might then be deployed,” he told SWI swissinfo.

Export controls are hard to enforce on software, Reddie said, adding that once the technology exists, it can proliferate.“We see lots of examples where companies will go right up to the export control rule line, and that's what they'll sell to the foreign market.”

In general, software that qualifies as civilian or dual use can be easily developed further outside the country and used for military use. The export of materiel clearly identified as military such as grenades, or also dual-use hardware such as actual drones is much easier to control.

Since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, global military spending has risen at its steepest rate since 2009, with a 6.8% increase year-on-year in 2023 to reach $2,443 billion (CHF2,115 billion), according to data recently releasedExternal link by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. The US Department of Defense budgetedExternal link $2.4 billion for unmanned aircraft systems in fiscal year 2025, up fromExternal link previous years. The investments come amidst a strategy to build a Western counterweight to Chinese drone vendor DJI, which controlsExternal link more than 70% of the global market, according to Statista.

“There's an overwhelming reliance upon one Chinese company to provide a lot of the drone capabilities in the Ukrainian context,” said Reddie.“So there has been a massive push in the West to replace those DJI drones.”

European venture capital firms in tandem have invested in dual-use technology like drones at record levels, Bloomberg reportedExternal link . Global militaryExternal link and civilianExternal link drone markets are projected to grow by 14% and 18% respectively over the coming decade according to market researcher Fortune Business Insights, with civilian drones increasingly beingExternal link remodelledExternal link for battlefield use.

In Switzerland, drone companies are strugglingExternal link with a lack of funding for later stages of development, according to a 2024 report by the Drone Industry Association DIAS. European providers are benefiting from military orders from Ukraine, DIAS board member Nathanael Apter told the NZZExternal link newspaper in July 2024.“Young companies such as Quantum-Systems in Germany or Delair in France receive an unexpected tailwind that Swiss manufacturers do not have due to neutrality regulations.”

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