After weeks of repeated invasions into European airspace, authorities are expected to meet in the Danish capital, Copenhagen, to discuss several measures aimed at protecting the continent’s skies, including the flagship “Drone Wall” initiative.
The committee, alongside the European Union, is working to build a “defense preparation roadmap” with sources with knowledge about the topics they spoke to CNN earlier this week. The roadmap includes four defense projects, including drone walls, sources say.
The drone wall initiative is not a physical wall, but a layered network of detection and interception systems based on the anti-drone capabilities of individual EU members.
The idea was announced as many European countries reported invasions into airspace, mostly pointing their fingers at Russia. The Kremlin denies involvement.
“Europe must provide a strong and united response to Russian drone invasions at our borders,” said Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, on Tuesday.
“That’s why we propose immediate action to create a drone wall as part of the Eastern Frank Watch. We have to move forward with Ukraine and NATO,” she said.
European leaders have made little public information about what the initiative actually looks like, or how long it will take to implement.
German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius warned earlier this week that the drone wall could take at least three to four years.
But Latvian Prime Minister Ebika Silina told reporters in Copenhagen on Wednesday that it could take much less time. “It doesn’t take three years. I think we can do it in a much shorter time,” she said.
Drone walls could help patch “gap holes” that actually exist in NATO air defenses, but that concept is not necessarily new. RafaelLoss is a policy fellow in defense, security and technology for the European Council of Foreign Relations think tank, and told CNN on Wednesday.
A project called The European Sky Shield Initiative (ESSI), which aims to enhance European air and missile defense, Loss noted, has been in work for many years. Nevertheless, there are still several ways drone walls can support NATO and the European Union countries.
The loss suggests that by expanding the network of sensors along the east side of NATO, countries will be able to more effectively identify and track potential drone invasions.
“Previously, NATO air defenses were pitted against fast-moving air threats, including aircraft missiles, ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and hyponasocyx, but not particularly against drones,” he said. “It’s slowly changing as a result of what we saw in Ukraine.”
Ukraine is “the most experienced country in Europe when it comes to the war between drones and counter drones,” Ross said. Using expertise from advisors involved in that form of conflict could help other parts of the continent understand the best ways to combat Russian drones, he said.
Countries that have escaped countering drones with expensive defense systems like the Patriots and instead incorporate cheaper electronic warfare methods, such as jamming, spoofing or destroying electronic signals that drones rely on their jobs, have proposed that the nation could develop more.
Drones are small, inexpensive and can cause serious damage, so they can pose disproportionate threats to the country they are unfolding. Not only can it cause physical damage, it can also use drones for monitoring, or pose the risk of colliding with an aircraft while in the air.
He also pointed out that even if the drone was intercepted while flying through the country’s airspace, the loss would “because the shards would fall somewhere.”
“Interviewing a city can save money on the valuable targets you’re trying to protect, councils, hospitals, power plants, etc., but even so, the wreckage can go down somewhere and damage people and property,” he explained.
“We need to complement this kind of defensive effort because once again there are huge gaps and we need to meet them.
NATO Executive Director Mark Latte said Tuesday that drone walls are “timely and necessary” and “good ideas” and cite costs as a particularly important reason for developing initiatives.
“In the end, you can’t spend millions of euros or dollars on missiles to get millions of dollars out of a drone.
