Vinsky, Estonia (AP) – Estonia is stretching its fence along its border with Russia and building anti-tank grooves and bunkers in preparation for a potential conflict with Moscow. However, these defenses are the threats faced by NATO allies from Russian drones. Electronic warfare.
From the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea, countries adjacent to Russia, Belarus and Ukraine are facing the leakage from the Moscow war in Ukraine.
About intrusion Russian drone to Poland This month we were spotlighting NATO’s air defense holes. We had to scramble a multimillion dollar jet To respond to drones that cost thousands and crash into the Polish countryside. Russia denied targeting Poland, but Polish officials suggested it was intentional.
Faced with growing issues, some EU defense ministers will meet on Friday to discuss the creation of a “drone wall.”
NATO warned Russia on Tuesday that it would defend against further violations of the airspace after Estonia said it. Russian fighter plane I violated it last week. But while the alliance knows how to identify threats from jets and missiles, handling drones is a bigger challenge, officials said.
In Poland, “most of the drones were not detected,” said Hanno Pebukul, Estonian Minister of Defense. “This is a real gap we have to solve.”
Military and defense officials from the Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania (NATO and the EU members who cross borders with Russia) told The Associated Press that defending drones requires solving a complex set of technical, financial and bureaucratic issues.
Europe needs cheaper technology to buy and speed up slower cycles of production and sourcing, they said. But even so, drone technology has advanced so quickly that what you just bought can be outdated for months.
“What I need,” said Lieutenant General Andras Melillo, who commands the Estonian army, “It’s a technology that’s good enough, affordable and can be produced by the masses.
“We don’t need a high-end feature that can fire just one against a target that attacks hundreds,” he said.
European drone challenge
Russia uses drones every night in Ukraine. Because each drone is a “always a winning lottery ticket,” said Kusti Salum, former top official of Estonia’s Ministry of Defense.
If the drone hits something or Ukraine shoots it down with a missile, the missile is more expensive than a drone, so it runs Frankenberg Technologies, which currently develops low-cost anti-dron missiles, to emit Kiev’s air defense and finances.
NATO countries “we have a very good understanding of how to protect against traditional threats such as missiles and planes, but we need to quickly improve the way we handle drone threats,” said Thomas Godliaskas, Lithuania’s Vice President of Defense.
When Russian drones jumped into Poland, NATO countries deployed fighter jets, attacked helicopters and warned of missile defense systems. However, none of these options were specifically designed for drone warfare.
Russia and Ukraine have launched more and more drones at each other, but their investment in counter drone systems is becoming less common, Salm said. Because it’s easier to fly a drone than to develop something to detect or intercept it.
Slow and low-flight drones made from wood, fiberglass, plastic, or polystyrene may not be detected by radar systems looking for metal rapidly moving missiles, or may look like birds or planes. Enemy operatives can also bypass defenses by launching drones from within the country, like Ukraine. It had a devastating effect When they attacked a Russian airfield this year.
Other technical hurdles include attempts to disrupt enemy drones and communications from their own drones and communications, Merillo said.
Multiple drone incidents
Ukrainian drone – probably sent a course in August Russian electronic jamming – Landed in a field in southeastern Estonia. It crashed because the army could not detect it, Merillo said.
Estonian military and border forces also lost drones to Russian jamming, which were used to surveillance and stop illegal border intersections. Flight Destruction.
Other drones have crashed in Romania, Moldova, Lithuania and Latvia. Several unidentified drones have been spotted at military facilities and airports in Europe, including Germany, the UK, Norway and Denmark. It stopped for a few hours Monday at Copenhagen Airport.
The number of cases indicates that Europe needs to resolve drone problems “now,” said Colonel Maris Tortin, head of intelligence analysis and operations at Latvian Joint Forces headquarters.
Drone wall
Support has been growing among European leaders to establish some kind of drone wall along the EU’s eastern border, but the block in March rejected funding for the Estonia-Lithuania joint proposal.
The EU should prioritize funding for projects, Pevkur said. However, while the support for this idea has grown, it is not easy to actually create a drone defense system.
“Drones are not mosquitoes,” the Estonian minister said, suggesting that it is unlikely to be hit by an “electronic wall” along the NATO boundary.
There are many types of drones used for intelligence and reconnaissance that fly at the height used in attack, or remain attached to thin fiber optic cables during flight, making jaming impossible. Russia also uses it Decoy Drone In Ukraine it is designed to have a payload and emit air defenses.
Plans to defend drones require a multi-layered approach, including sensors, “electronic warfare…and low-cost small missiles or attack drones.”
The need for cheaper and richer technology
The need for better drone defense is not new, but it is still primarily possible to buy a “really expensive” system, which takes a long time to develop and cannot be mass-produced, Merillo said.
He says that the large defense companies that have developed billions of dollars of air defense systems may not want something new or cheaper in the market.
“We need to understand this game,” Merillo said, adding that there are some technologies out there, but “who is the question and how quickly can we start production?”
Facing the nightly onslaught, Ukraine is rapidly developing its technology. Long Range Attack Drone and A small one for use in frontlines.
Latvia and several other NATO countries relied on Salum’s company Frankenburg to acquire small anti-drone missiles once produced.
However, a fragmented approach is not ideal, Salum said. Instead, he said the EU should invest more in European startups that can turbocharge drone defense production that allies can use with different weapons systems.
Europe needs to switch to “semi-final thinking” and promote greater cooperation between the military, government and the defense industry to close the technology gap, Godliaskas said.
In Ukraine, there are only a few weeks between drone technology developed and used on the battlefield. Europe doesn’t have the time to spend years waiting to acquire equipment, the Lithuanian said.
Another lesson from Ukraine is that what’s working today might not work tomorrow, Godliauskas pointed out.
Drone defense is important now, but it would be wrong to forget everything else, Tochin said. This is because Moscow is using “all possible means” to destabilise Europe. Hybrid battle And cyber attacks, he said.
