Europe wants to build a drone wall to protect its eastern flank from Russia. Is it feasible?

European Commission President Ursula Von Der Leyen said successful her September 10 State of nan Union reside that Europe “must heed nan call” of nan Baltic states to “build a drone wall”.

“This is not an absurd ambition, it is nan bedrock of reliable defence,” she said earlier this month. 

Since then, EU defence commissioner Andrius Kubilius told Reuters last week that he plans to telephone together nan EU’s defence ministers for talks connected creating a “drone wall” on nan EU’s eastbound separator aft Russian drones were changeable down complete Polish airspace. 

Both Von Der Leyen and Kubilius are referring to nan Baltic Drone Wall, a cooperative effort between Poland, Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to fortify nan EU and NATO’s eastbound border. 

Two companies of astatine slightest 8 progressive pinch nan task opportunity parts of nan drone wall exertion are already deployed but they are waiting to spot whether different European governments will want to merge their exertion into their defence systems. 

“What we are expecting [from Kubilius’ meeting] … is confirmation that this problem is superior and they want to act,” said Jaanus Tamm, president and CEO of Estonian defence institution DefSecIntel. 

“What are nan adjacent steps for nan actions? Not conscionable ‘let’s meet again and … make different declaration, but [we’re hoping for] … a very actual plan,” he told Euronews Next. 

What do we cognize astir nan ‘Drone Wall’ project?

At nan bosom of nan drone wall task is simply a “multilayered drone defence system” called Eirshield, an anti-drone level developed done a associated business betwixt DefSecIntel and Latvian institution Origin Robotics. 

It uses radars, cameras, power wave detectors, nan drone’s guidance and its threat level to determine whether a dispute drone should person its awesome jammed aliases blocked aliases whether it should beryllium deed pinch different drone, Tamm said. 

Agris Kipurs, co-founder and CEO of Origin Robots, said nan strategy is “fully automatic,” making nan strikes imaginable pinch nan thief of artificial intelligence (AI)  truthful there’s “no flying required,” meaning everything from drone discovery to interception is automated.  

Eirshield is designed to activity connected “fast-flying unmanned” targets carrying warheads that tin alert upwards of 200 kilometres per hour, Kipurs said. The strategy will besides person immoderate parts that are portable, he added. 

The strategy tin beryllium equipped pinch respective types of drones, including immoderate that DefSecIntel has already developed, which Tamm said is cardinal to responding to nan capacities of different types of drones. 

The cost-per-use of nan Eirshield strategy is successful nan “tens of thousands” of euros, Kipurs said, compared to nan “couple of millions” that older, accepted aerial onslaught systems use. 

“The systems which are presently successful spot were designed for a batch much costly threats [such arsenic ] neutralising missiles and parented aviation,” Kipurs said. “It was not designed to intercept … onslaught drones … that threat is very new, truthful we are conscionable now designing for it”. 

Tamm said nan strategy has been deployed successful Ukraine and is equipped location pinch a “third-party weapon system” that lets Ukrainian forces deed low-flying drones for illustration Shahed drones. 

Kipurs said location are planned demonstrations of nan strategy successful nan coming weeks but could not specify which governments were willing successful nan drone wall exertion for information reasons. 

Technology to beryllium adapted to NATO standards

Tamm said location will apt person to beryllium immoderate changes to nan Eirshield strategy utilized successful Ukraine to meet NATO standards and for “peacetime” successful nan Baltics. 

“You tin ideate that erstwhile you person an progressive warfare going on, everything [that] is flying is bad truthful [the targets identified by nan system] are astir apt hostile,” Tamm said.

“In peacetime, you person to beryllium judge that what’s coming … is really a bad drone and you request to way it rather carefully”. 

Some of these peacetime changes could see equipping nan strategy to return down drones pinch a nett aliases utilizing a mini drone to deed nan incoming drone without making it explode, he added. 

Kipurs said it’s up to nationalist militaries to determine what nan strategies are and what operation of discovery and interception they want to use. 

When nan drone wall is up and running, Tamm said it will not switch much accepted types of aerial defence systems, for illustration different anti-missile systems. 

Euronews Next reached retired to nan Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian governments to find retired really nan drones will beryllium utilized by their militaries but did not person an contiguous reply. 

Drone wall backing denied by Commission successful August

There’s renewed liking now successful nan drone wall project, but arsenic precocious arsenic past month, nan EU Commission rejected a drone wall backing connection from Estonia and Lithuania worthy €12 million. 

Euronews Next reached retired to nan Commission to find retired why nan first task backing was rejected but did not person an contiguous reply. 

Kipurs implied nan drone wall task wasn’t an nonstop lucifer for what nan Commission was looking to money astatine nan time. 

Still, each 3 nationalist governments dedicated portion of their nationalist budgets to nan drone wall. 

In Estonia, nan authorities has already allocated €12 cardinal complete nan adjacent 3 years to nan drone wall programme that will beryllium built by various nationalist defence companies and others from neighbouring Latvia and Lithuania. 

Latvia awarded €10 million in 3 investigation contracts to Origin Robotics and different defence cluster members, SAF Tehnika and Frankenburg Technologies for counter-drone solutions. 

Lithuanian officials told section media they had previously received €11 cardinal from nan EU to bargain drones, pinch 3 cardinal of those costs dedicated to anti-drone equipment.