Europe plans drone wall to shield eastern border from Russian incursions

Europe is planning to build a drone wall to shield the eastern border from Russian incursions.

European Commission President Ursula Von Der Leyen commented during her State of the Union address, “Europe must pay attention to the calls of the Baltic states to build a drone wall.”

“This is not an abstract ambition, it is the bedrock of credible defence,” Leyen added.

As reported by Reuters, EU defence commissioner Andrius Kubilius has also announced the plans about arranging the EU’s defence ministers meeting on developing a drone wall along the eastern border.

The decision came on the heels of Russian unprovoked drone incursions in Polish space last week.

The Baltic Drone Wall is attributed as a collaborative effort between Finland, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania to fortify NATO’s eastern flank.

Two companies involved in the drone wall project asserted that some parts of the drone wall technology are in the process of deployment and they are waiting for the nod from other European governments to integrate this technology in defence systems.

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

“What are the next steps for the actions? Not just ‘let’s meet again and … make another declaration, but [we’re hoping for] … a very concrete plan,” he added.

What is a drone wall project?

The drone wall project consists of a “multi-layered drone defence system” dubbed as Eirshield.

It acts as an anti-drone platform created through a collaborative venture between Latvian company Origin Robotics and DefSecIntel.

By equipping with cameras, radars, and radio frequency detectors, the drone can decide the direction and threat levels of enemy drones.

Being AI-powered, every move ranging from drone identification to interception will be fully automated, cutting down the dependency of flying.

Contrary to “couple of million” costs of traditional air strike systems, the cost-per-use of the Eirshield system is in the “tens of thousands” of euros.