The European Union is rushing to invest billions of euros in building a “drone wall” with battle-tested Ukrainian technologies after Russian drones breached NATO airspace.

Source: The Financial Times

Details: The incursion of Russian drones into Polish and Romanian airspace highlighted NATO’s reliance on expensive interception systems to counter relatively cheap UAVs – a vulnerability Russia may continue to exploit.

The FT reported that to fill this gap, Brussels has urged member state capitals to use EU funds and jointly procure systems that have proved effective in Ukraine.

A few hours after NATO jets shot down several of the roughly 19 drones that violated Polish airspace, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen stated that Europe must “build a drone wall” on its eastern border.

She said the wall would be “a European capability developed together, deployed together, and sustained together, that can respond in real time”.

Von der Leyen also noted that the EU will enter into a “drone alliance” with Kyiv, supported by €6 billion in funding, to “transform Ukrainian ingenuity into battlefield advantage and into joint industrialisation”.

Meanwhile, Poland, the Baltic states, and Finland have announced plans to reinforce their borders. However, officials warn that such efforts will only be effective if they are unified and based on shared, fully integrated technologies.

One EU official told the FT that “Europe’s defence posture is too fragmented, but this particular area is where we really need to see much more co-ordination. You can’t have one [frontline] state doing one thing on their border and another doing something different.”

The FT adds that to bridge the gap while acquiring new defence systems, NATO has launched an air defence mission known as Eastern Sentry. It involves deploying fighter jets, ships and reconnaissance systems along the eastern flank, from Finland to Bulgaria.

The Financial Times also reminded readers that although Kyiv relies on Western partners for air defence systems to shoot down missiles, “it has pioneered cost-effective ways of dealing with Russian attack drones”.

Background:

Notably, Ukrainian Defence Minister Denys Shmyhal recently announced that the UK will manufacture Ukrainian-developed interceptor drones. First, there are plans to produce an initial batch of 1,000 drones, all earmarked for delivery to Ukraine.In late August, it was reported that Ukraine’s Defence Ministry had approved more than 25 models of Ukrainian interceptor UAV systems for use in military units.

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