Regulatory Alert — EU 2026 Common Military List: Drones

Regulatory Alert

EU Military List 2026: When Is a Drone a Military Item?

Affects you if

you build, sell, integrate or demo drones, drone payloads or ground stations, and any of them leave the EU — or go to a customer who might use them for defence.

The Council adopted the 2026 Common Military List of the European Union on 23 February 2026. It replaces the list adopted on 24 February 2025 and was published in the Official Journal as C/2026/1640 (Source). The list defines the equipment covered by Council Common Position 2008/944/CFSP, the EU rules on exporting military goods.

The annex to the intra-EU defence transfers directive (2009/43/EC) was aligned with the current list by Delegated Directive (EU) 2026/325, which applies from 5 June 2026 (Source, Source).

What the list says about drones

Drones sit in category ML10. We compared the 2026 text with the 2025 text word by word: the drone entry, ML10.c, is unchanged. The 2026 edits in ML10 are elsewhere — the parachute entry and the notes. The heading reads:

"Aircraft", "lighter-than-air vehicles", "Unmanned Aerial Vehicles" ("UAVs"), aero-engines, "sub-orbital craft" and "aircraft" equipment, related equipment, and components, as follows, specially designed or modified for military use

ML10.c covers "UAVs", Remotely Piloted Air Vehicles (RPVs), autonomous programmable vehicles and unmanned "lighter-than-air vehicles"; launchers, recovery equipment and ground support equipment; and equipment designed for command or control — plus specially designed components (Source).

The list defines a UAV as "Any "aircraft" capable of initiating flight and sustaining controlled flight and navigation without any human presence on board."

Translation: the test is not the airframe. It is the words at the end of the heading: specially designed or modified for military use. A civil drone stays outside ML10. The same drone, modified for a military customer, can move inside it — and then it needs a military export licence, not a dual-use one.

The dual-use line next to it

A drone that is not military can still be controlled as dual-use. EU dual-use Annex I entry 9A012.a catches "UAVs" or unmanned "airships", designed to have controlled flight out of the direct 'natural vision' of the 'operator' and having any of the following:

• a maximum 'endurance' greater than or equal to 30 minutes but less than 1 hour, and designed to take-off and have stable controlled flight in wind gusts equal to or exceeding 46,3 km/h (25 knots); or
• a maximum 'endurance' of 1 hour or greater.

Endurance is calculated for ISA conditions at sea level in zero wind (Source, Annex I as consolidated on 15 November 2025).

Translation: three boxes. Military design or modification → ML10. Civil, flies beyond line of sight with enough endurance → 9A012. Below both → not on either list, but sanctions and the end-use catch-all still apply.

Payloads and ground kit are separate questions

The list points guidance and navigation equipment to ML11. Cameras and sensors on a drone are classified on their own: ML15 covers "Imaging or countermeasure equipment, as follows, specially designed for military use", and ML5 covers fire control, surveillance and warning equipment specially designed for military use (Source). A civil airframe carrying a military payload is two classifications, not one.

The EU's 21st sanctions package also targeted UAV hardware — see our 3 August brief.

Do this yourself

1. List every drone, payload and ground station you ship. For each, write down one answer: was it designed or modified for a military user? If yes, start from ML10, ML11, ML15 or ML5.
2. For the civil ones, check 9A012.a: does it fly beyond the operator's direct sight, and what is its maximum endurance? Keep the datasheet figure with the classification.
3. Classify the payload separately from the airframe.
4. When a customer asks for a change — a weapon mount, a military datalink, a fit-out for a defence user — classify again before you build it.
5. In your compliance records, note that you checked the 2026 edition (C/2026/1640).