Counter-UAS · Protection as a Service

Protecting Critical Infrastructure.

The European protection network for critical infrastructure and industry. CENDEF turns it into a system.

The Situation

An off-the-shelf drone can take a site worth hundreds of millions out of operation. The difficulty lies not in the technology, but in selecting it and directing it over time.

Copenhagen, Oslo, Warsaw

There is no single consolidated European figure for drone disruptions. But in 2025, Germany alone recorded 226 reported drone events at airports, 116 of which caused operational disruption. At the same time, major European hubs such as Copenhagen, Oslo, Warsaw, Munich, Berlin, Brussels and Vilnius experienced significant drone-related closures, diversions and cancellations

Source: EASA / Eurocontrol · 2024

The Gap

Between the duty to protect and the authority to engage.

Operators of critical facilities must protect their sites. Active defence in the airspace, however, remains a state prerogative. The state is permitted to engage, but across distributed sites it cannot be everywhere at all times. This gap is the space in which CENDEF works.

Protection works as a system, or not at all.

The Model

You operate the site. CENDEF operates its protection.

CENDEF integrates proven sensors, classification and effector architecture into a legally compliant overall system and operates it as a service. You are not buying a weapons system. You are buying protection. Triggering hard effectors remains with the state at every point in time.

CENDEF builds what makes engagement possible.

The Architecture · Air Security Law

Detection stays with the operator. Engagement authorisation follows your national law.

Six stages, one hard boundary — but where that boundary sits depends on your jurisdiction. Up to verification, the private sector operates. What comes after is defined by your national airspace law. CENDEF builds the layer that connects both sides cleanly, wherever your law draws the line.

1
Detection
Zone I — Operator and CENDEF. Sensors capture objects in the airspace above the site.
2
Classification
Zone I — Operator and CENDEF. Context AI separates threat from nuisance and false alarm.
3
Verification
Zone I — Operator and CENDEF. Confirmation of the situation and preparation of the handover.
4
Engagement authorisation
Zone II — defined by national law. In most European jurisdictions, the decision to engage actively rests with the state alone. In some, private engagement rights are evolving. CENDEF builds the architecture to match what your law permits today — and to extend as legislation changes.
5
Deployment
Zone II — Soft-kill or hard-kill are triggered in accordance with national authorisation.
6
Situational picture and evidence
Zone II — Documentation for operators, insurers and authorities.

Sectors · Critical Infrastructure

One standard. Many sites.

Energy

Substations, grid nodes, power plants

Airports

Take-off, landing, apron

Seaports

Terminals, cranes, anchorage

Data centres

Power supply, cooling, data

Industry

Plants, chemical parks, logistics

Research

Laboratories, facilities, clinics

How protection begins

Protection does not begin with a purchase. It begins with a plan.

The path is staged. Each step stands on its own and creates the basis for the next. You commit only once the previous step justifies the next one.

Protection plan

A first, confidential assessment of your site and its threat situation.

Compliance

Alignment with your national critical infrastructure obligations, NIS2 and any applicable site-specific protection requirements.

III

Site survey and certificate

Technical on-site survey as the basis for a robust protection concept.

Detailed report

A concrete concept for your site, effector architecture and connection to the state trigger chain.

Overall concept and technology

Selection and integration of the right components, independent of any single manufacturer.

Implementation

Build-out, networking and connection to the state trigger chain.

VII

Operations

The operating model: 24/7 monitoring, maintenance, updates and adaptation across the entire lifecycle.

The protection network

Three layers: site, state, strategy. CENDEF connects them.

CENDEF is not a layer of its own, but the integrating line between them.

Layer 01

Site

Operator and CENDEF system. Detection, classification and hardware at the individual site. Response in seconds.

Layer 02

State

National police, border forces and military. Soft-kill and hard-kill are triggered in accordance with national authorisation. Trigger authority.

Layer 03

Strategy

Europe, NATO and EU. Situational framework, procurement, regulation, defence strategy.

The Decision

A site is not a product.

The counter-drone market is well supplied. Sensors, radars and effectors are available in large numbers and, taken individually, are capable. A protection system is only as good as its fit: designed for the situation and topography of your site, not for a catalogue. It must change when the threat changes, and carry more than a compliance certificate. What holds up is not the device that fits today, but the directed architecture that is selected, operated and kept current. We select rather than sell.

Whoever does not direct the system is only selling parts of it.

A product protects at the moment of purchase. Operations protect over time.

A single product

You buy a device.

Choice of technology — your responsibility

Integration and networking — your problem

Operations, staffing, 24/7 — your problem

Adaptation to new threats — new procurement

Connection to authorities — not included

CENDEF operations

You commission protection — continuously.

Site survey and risk analysis

Independent technology selection and networking

Site-specific protection AI that learns with the situation and the sensors

Installation, training and reporting

Maintenance, servicing and security checks

Further development and upgrades in step with the threat

24/7 operations centre and situational picture

Connectivity to national cyber and defence authorities, where available and desired

The Framework

What operators are permitted to do today. What is changing.

The legal situation is in flux across Europe. CENDEF works exclusively within the legal framework of your jurisdiction. This overview does not replace legal advice.

Detection and classification

Operators are permitted to run their own detection systems today in most European jurisdictions. CENDEF delivers this component as a first step, without state powers.

Critical infrastructure regulation

NIS2 applies across the EU. National transpositions and KRITIS-equivalent frameworks are being adopted across member states, each with specific registration and protection obligations for operators. CENDEF maps your site against the obligations that apply to you.

Active defence

Active engagement rights vary by jurisdiction. In most European countries, hard engagement remains a state prerogative. In others, the boundary is being actively debated and may expand. CENDEF assesses what your national law permits and builds the effector layer accordingly — ready to extend as legislation evolves.

Connectivity to authorities

Data interfaces to national cyber and defence authority situational pictures are provided for architecturally. Concrete agreements will be established with the first pilot customers in each country.

Every solution wins on one axis. CENDEF wins the system.

Insurance and Risk

Three questions supervisory boards are asking today.

Does our operational liability cover drone damage on the plant site?

Standard policies treat drone incidents inconsistently. Clarity comes only from testing your own policy against the threat scenario. CENDEF delivers the technical risk analysis that insurers ask for.

How does airspace security affect our premiums?

Industrial insurers are beginning to factor documented protective measures into their premium models, much as they did with cybersecurity ten years ago. CENDEF documents those measures so that they become creditable in audits.

What about business interruption losses?

Minor physical damage can trigger weeks of downtime with seven-figure knock-on costs that are not clearly attributable. This constellation is the leverage point for protection investments. CENDEF works it through transparently in the initial concept.

Who stands behind it

Fully established from day one.

Technical depth

Development partnership with an established European engineering house with decades of experience in safety-critical systems and an active defence portfolio.

Institutional set-up

Central Defence Command, founded 2026 in Berlin. Advisory board drawn from industry, services and finance.

Involvement of authorities

Structured data exchange with national cyber and defence authority situational pictures is built in as an architectural principle. Concrete agreements will be established with the first pilot customers in each country.

Who it is for

For sites whose loss cannot be replaced, CENDEF builds the protection network: for operators of critical infrastructure, technology leaders, industrial headquarters and research institutions. What decides is not the size of the balance sheet, but what a single incident destroys irrecoverably.

CENDEF is the right choice when you have to protect, but are not permitted to engage yourself.

Request a protection plan. Confidential and without obligation