Drone incidents have been making headlines across Europe for more than a week.
On the night of 9/10 September, the Russian drone entered the polish airplane in an unprecedented wave. 19 unmanned air vehicles were identified, some of which were shot down.
A few days later, a member of the Russian drone NATO crossed the field of Romania.
On Monday, Polish authorities took down the deaf drone on government buildings in Warsaw and allegedly expanded a belarous and a Ukrainian suspect.
No one was injured in the thesis incidents, and Russia denied that intruders were deliberately. Nevertheless, NATO has responded by launching a new mission to protect the airspace on his eastern flank.
What is Operation Eastern Orange?
Defense Alliance announced an official statement on 12 September, “multi-domain activity”, “multi-domain activity” continues to include both the ground bases and aerial rescue and “continue to continue.”
With this new operation, NATO wants to send a clear message to both its eastern member states and Russia.
The UK and Denmark have supported the initiative, among others. Germany has doubled the number of fighter aircraft dedicated to air defense in Poland from two to four, and France has deployed Rafale fighter jets.
Using a ‘sladheamer on a thumbtack’
While jets and air-to-air missiles have been successfully deployed against drone, they are anything but cost effective.
“The kind of drone we are seizing in Ukraine [$11,800 to $35,400] a piece. If you are firing the million dollars missiles on them, you are going to get out of them very fast, “Chris Kremidas-courty, a defense expert at the Brasails-based think tank European Policy Center (EPC), told DW.” We are using a thumbtac. ,
Cremidas-Cortni explained that European NATO members should invest in more efficient modern defense techniques instead as an example, the Swedish-built Nimbrix Anti-Drones can stop the drone at a fraction of the cost to the missile system. Otherwise, he said, Europe will be trapped with a problematic “cost inequality”.
A European drone wall?
Baltic states, which regularly deal with Russian infiltration into their airspace, Poland and Finland have asked to increase coordinated drones defense for many years.
This concept has often been referred to as a “drone wall” – a word in his latest state association speech by European Commission Chairman Ursula von Der Leyen.
The Ukrainian is set to know that an important role in the construction of this rhetorical wall, the Commission announced a € 6 billion joint drone production project.
“We need to learn from Ukrainian,” said Ian Bond, Deputy Director of the Brasails -based Think Tank Center for European Reform (CER). “They have a lot of success rate in bringing Russian drones down, and if they have technology to do it, we need to get it and copy it.”
NATO message to Putin: ‘We will respect’
One of the major challenges for NATO to implement New Drone Defense Technology for NATO, former Chairman of NATO military committee, Admiral Rob Bauur said in an interview with DW.
Bauur said that apart from investing in new hardware, Europe needs to adopt a different mentality towards Russia: “We need to give information to our people, and people need to accept that there is a danger.”
For his share, Kremlin has repeated the line he considers NATO as a war in Russia.
While NATO says INS is not so, Admiral Bauur told DW that the alliance is on “A Gray Zone Betley Peace and War” and on high alert: “This is a very import message for Mr. Putin: NATO will answer, whatever happens.”
Bauur says Allid Defense proved that when they shoot the drone over Poland, they work: “I think we have passed the test, but we have to be better to address the thesis,” he told DW.
Can NATo stop future drone opportunities?
CER’s Ian Bond NATO’s current drone is suspected about defense abilities. “The perception is that NATO was not designed to shoot a drone, and needs to enhance his game enough,” he told DW.
Bond said that NATO needs to show more resolve and take Russian drones down whenever it can be done safely – even if they are flying on western Ukraine.
NATO member states have avoided doing so in many cases so far.
In July, Lithuania reported that two Russian drones had crossed its airspace, but it did not shoot them. In a statement quoted in the Lithuanian media, the army said that it will take such measures only under extreme conditions. After the incident, Lithuania asked NATO to increase air rescue.
Recently, Romania did not take active measures against a Russian drone in its airspace, which then changed the course and moved towards Ukraine. According to Romania’s Ministry of Defense, the Romanian Air Force pilots saw the drone, “assessed the collateral risk and decided not to open the fire.”
Bond warns that Moscow can read the search inactivity as an encouraging sign, and such drones may proceed well to attack goals in Ukraine.
Civil protection measures are needed
While intercepting the drone is important to defend the airspace of NATO, experts say governments should think about the discovery of measures in the form of air raid warning apps and incribute shelter capacity.
Defense analyst Ian Bond told DW, “It would be a new step, but I don’t think it’s a highly step.”
He is convinced that Russia will continue to test Ukraine’s Western colleagues until they ramps a large extent in their own rescue and Ukraine.
Cremidas-Cortney shared the assessment, saying, “We should assume that Russia is going to try every two weeks, unless we make a price that does not decide them.”
NATO hopes that the Operation Eastern Sentry just wants to do this.
DW’s Terry Shults contributed to reporting.
Edited by: Angle Flangon