The wall of the drones can “be operational in a few months,” said President Nicușor Dan. What is known so far about the European Defense Plan in front of Russia

“It goes on the concept of anti-Drone wall,” President Nicușor Dan said on Thursday at the end of the EU summit in Copenhagen. He specified this new European defense plan against Russia's air threats is to be operational in a few months. ” Many details about the wall against drones are not known, everything being still in the early phase.

• The so-called “wall for drones” has gained more support inside the EU, after recent incidents with Russian drones in Poland and Romania. Subsequently, they were incidents with drones in other countries in the community bloc, such as Denmark, but the clear connection with Russia was not made, but one of the main hypotheses.
• A European Commissioner anticipates that the plan will be ready in a year, but given the recent wave of incursions of Russian drones into the European airspace, officials show that they will act faster, writes The New York Times.

Today, President Nicușor Dan said, at the end of the Security meeting in Copenhagen, a city where recently the airport was closed due to some drones, that “the discussion about the financing” of the plan began.

“As for this system of drones on the Eastern flank and how to defend Europe of drones, as I told you it is a discussion on the operational technical side that is between the defense ministers.

“There are nuances in question, but there is no more a matter of neighborhood with Russia. (…) It is a threat we face and even if they were shades, it goes on this concept of anti-Dron wall,” said the president.

“We need intercepting drones, a type of drones that are still in development”

He also said that today's discussion was a “preliminary one about what you will see at the end of the meeting on October 23-24, that plan of action on all Europe's security issues, including drones,” Nicuşor Dan said.

Also about this Drone wall spoke on Thursday, from the Victoria Palace and the Minister of Defense, which also gave details about Romania's plan to develop with Ukraine Drone of interception. “We want capabilities for defense, we do not attack anyone and that's what we want to be clear,” said the government official.

“The Drone Wall is a proposal of the European Commission that is not yet materialized in any way. We had a first discussion last Friday with Commissioner Kubilius (Na Andrius Kubilius-European Commissioner for Defense and Space) and with the defense ministers on the East Flank. We all asked for a new tool in the form of grant and for a rapid collaboration. Defense, we do not attack anyone and we want to be clear.

Can be ready in 12 months

Last week, the European Commissioner for Defense and Space Andrius Kubilius said that the European Union can significantly improve in 12 months the detection capabilities of drones, but will take longer to develop a complete terrestrial and maritime network capable of tracking and destroying targets.

“We need to understand that we are lacking capacities for drone detection. Maybe we have a good ability to detect airplanes and rockets, but drones have their specificity – they fly very low and are small,” Kudilius said last Wednesday.

The idea was also supported by NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. “We have to protect our sky,” Rutte said on Tuesday, talking to the head of the European Commission, Ursula von Der Leyen, before a meeting with EU commissioners in Brussels.

The project is based on Ukraine's expertise

The “anti-drone wall” will be along the eastern flank of the community block. The details are few, because the effort is still in the incipient phase. Given the recent wave of incursions of Russian drones into the European airspace, officials are motivated to act quickly, notes The New York Times.

Many countries already have anti-drone technologies or work on their development, the publication points out. The objective in this case would be a common shield to detect, follow and intercepure the drones when entering the airspace of the European Union or of one of its close allies.

The wall would not be a physical barrier, but rather a network coordinated by drone tracking devices – which could use tools such as radars, jamming devices and acoustic sensors – along with an improved information and data exchange system.

Mark Rutte, the head of NATO, who collaborates with the European Union and his Member States on this project, said on Tuesday that “we cannot spend millions of euros or dollars to destroy drones, which cost only a few thousand dollars.”

The project would be based on the expertise developed in Ukraine, which has already offered consultancy to its European allies.

Mette Frederiksen, Prime Minister Denmark, said on Wednesday, at a press conference after the Copenhagen meeting, that the effort “includes the construction of a European anti-drone network, measures that can detect and, of course, neutralize the intruders from the outside.”

The anti-Drone wall would be part of a broader initiative meant to improve the supervision of the eastern borders of the European Union. This initiative could also include improvement of maritime security and spatial surveillance in real time, which would increase the ability of the Community block to track military movements.

The first criticisms

But there are also criticism of the project, Polito noted. According to Macron, Europeans should focus on the joint development of early warning systems (France and Germany are currently cooperating in this regard).

“In reality, we need advanced warning systems to better anticipate threats, we need to be discouraged with European, long-distance fire capabilities, and we need more soil-air defense systems and drone control,” said Emmanuel Macron, before the Copenhagen meeting.

And earlier during this week, the German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said there are more urgent priorities to approach. “Defense against drones, of course, but not through a wall of drones,” he said in front of the audience at the Warsaw Security Forum.

“We should pay attention to the management of expectations. (…) We are not talking about a concept that will be done in the next three or four years,” Pistorius warned.

The debate also emphasizes how geography often leads to disagreements between European leaders on the best way to protect the continent from external threats, including Russia, notes the publication in Brussels.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni warned not to look at the southern flank of Europe, a repeated message also by his Greek counterpart Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

“Any common European defense project on Europe cannot be limited to the eastern borders of the continent,” Mitsotakis told reporters.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Latvian Evaka Silina and Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda praised the project before the Copenhagen meeting, which emphasized the clear division between the first lines and the countries located faster by the borders of Russia and Ukraine, writes Politico.