NATO admits it is unprepared for Russia’s cheap drone threat

Three and a half years after the start of what has been termed the “drone wars,” the debate sparked by allegations of Russian unmanned aerial vehicles violating Polish airspace has shown that NATO countries are still unprepared for this new type of warfare.

According to Polish data, at least three of the 19 drones that entered the country, or 16%, were shot down. In Ukraine, which is under constant Russian attack, this rate is much higher.

For example, on the night of the violation against Poland, the Ukrainian Air Force announced it had destroyed 413 out of 458 vehicles, corresponding to a 90% success rate.

During the interception, Poland deployed two F-16 and two F-35 fighter jets, two AWACS reconnaissance aircraft, a refueling plane, Mi-24, Mi-17, and Black Hawk helicopters, and activated the radars of its Patriot air defense systems. Ukraine, however, generally uses such advanced weapons against missiles.

For a long time, much simpler and cheaper methods have been used against drones. These solutions range from teams with machine guns on the roofs of cars or buildings and Yak-52 training aircraft firing rifles, to $5,000 interceptor drones that hunt down Russia’s Iranian-made Shahed-type drones (such as the $35,000 Geran-2 or the $10,000 Gerbera that entered Poland).

‘We cannot continue like this,’ says Rutte

According to Politico, the issue was raised on Thursday in Brussels at a meeting of EU ambassadors attended for the first time by NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.

Many diplomats expressed concern that NATO’s response to the Russian drones demonstrated the alliance’s unpreparedness for such attacks.

“We can’t constantly scramble F-35s to intercept these kinds of objects. Rutte himself came to this conclusion, and no one contradicted him,” a diplomat told the newspaper.

Ulrike Francke, a senior research fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said it was very good that Poland detected and shot down the unmanned aerial vehicles launched by Russia to “subject NATO to a political and military test.”

However, Francke pointed out that the real problem lies elsewhere:

“Are we going to send F-16s and F-35s every time? This is wasteful. We need to improve our equipment with anti-drone defense systems.”

In the aftermath of the events, Poland’s first step was to request new Patriot systems from its allies.

Germany pledged to “expand and strengthen air patrols over Poland” with Eurofighter jets, “in addition to existing commitments to the Baltic states and Poland.”

French President Emmanuel Macron decided to send three more fighter jets to the country.

Training offer from Ukraine, investment from Rheinmetall

More practical proposals came from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Armin Papperger, the CEO of Europe’s largest defense company, Rheinmetall.

Zelenskyy offered to train the Poles in combating drones, and Warsaw decided to send its soldiers to Ukraine for this purpose.

Papperger stated that his company is ready to help Poland with air defense systems, emphasizing that Europe must increase investment and production capacity for the development of “very cheap” anti-UAV systems.

“I think Ukraine needs twice what it has now, but we have to invest in Europe because Europe has almost nothing,” Papperger said in an interview with the Financial Times.

Some European defense companies have begun developing the necessary tools, but these steps were taken in the fourth year of the war.

At the end of August, Sweden’s Saab introduced its new, low-cost Nimbrix missile, designed to neutralize small, low-altitude UAVs.

France’s arms procurement agency also recently ordered a prototype for a laser drone defense system from a group of companies including MBDA, Safran, Thales, and Cilas.

Francke noted that newly established technology companies have achieved great success in this field, but there is not enough demand for their products in Europe.

According to Francke, a modern and layered defense system that takes unmanned aerial vehicles into account has not been built.

Stating that a single system cannot counter all threats, Francke added, “By definition, a multi-layered defense that includes both electronic and kinetic countermeasures is necessary.”

Charly Salonius-Pasternak, general director of the Helsinki-based think tank Nordic West Office, said that NATO should have already learned lessons from the events in Ukraine on “how to track and shoot down large numbers of cheap drones without using missiles worth millions of euros,” and added:

“So what has the political establishment in Europe done about this?”