Will drone education be Lithuania’s new favorite school subject?

The preparations of NATO against the omnipresent Russian threat, especially on NATO’s Eastern flank continue. In a recent development, Latvia initiated an effort to teach drone operations to children. The goal is to boost national security and interest in engineering among the youth.

Lithuania, bordering the Russian exclave, Kaliningrad and Belarus is in alert mode since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. NATO has increased its presence in the eastern part of the Alliance as well, starting in 2017 with four multinational battlegroups in the Baltics and Poland. 

“Following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Allies reinforced the existing battlegroups and agreed to establish four more multinational battlegroups in Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia. This brought the total number of multinational battlegroups to eight, effectively doubled the number of troops on the ground and extended NATO’s forward presence across the Alliance’s eastern flank – from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Black Sea in the south,” reads the updated NATO report from June 2025. 

Defence and education ministries paired up to teach more than 22,000 people, including 7,000 children in schools how to operate drones. The plan is to establish 9 drone training centers between 2025-2028. The government investment into this program is 3.3 million euros.

Adapted to different age groups, students between eight and 10 years old would be taught how to build and pilot simple drones, while secondary schoolchildren would be involved in design and manufacturing of more complex drones.

The drone coalition expands

Established in 2024, the Drone Coalition is an initiative of Latvia and Ukraine aimed at scaling up drone deployment in the frontline. Now, the coordination is under Latvia and the United Kingdom and the coalition which now includes 20 countries: Latvia, the United Kingdom, Ukraine, Australia, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Estonia, Italy, New Zealand, Canada, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Turkey, Germany, and Sweden. Belgium and Turkey were the last countries to join the coalition this July. 

In over a year of the joint effort, 176 million euros have been accumulated in a fund to establish a technological advantage of Ukraine in drones production and deployment. As a result of one of two international tenders, 30,000 drones were commissioned to FPV drones suppliers over the following 6 months.

Drones have become a staple in defense innovation in Europe, “modernizing’ warfare. In Ukraine, they have become the weapon that brought about the most casualties on Russia’s side. The EU is supporting development and investments in production and innovation. However, Europe also faces challenges in drone regulation, both for civilian and military drones. Experts call for implementation of ethical regulation, export controls and a regulatory framework that enforces legal compliance. “The Parliament also emphasises the importance of meaningful human control over all lethal decisions and insists that military artificial intelligence include strong accountability mechanisms,” states EU Parliament briefing.