NATO wants an “automated zone” along the border with Russia. Test programs in Romania and Poland

General Thomas Lowin, NATO's deputy chief of staff for operations, explained that such an area would act as a defensive buffer before potential enemy forces advance into a “kind of hot zone” where conventional fighting could take place.

The military official made these statements to German Sunday newspaper Welt am Sonntag.

The area would have sensors to detect enemy forces and activate defenses such as drones, semi-autonomous combat vehicles, ground robots, as well as automated air and missile defense systems, Lowin said.

Any decision to use lethal weapons would be “always under human responsibility,” he said.

A range of thousands of kilometers

According to the general, the sensors – located “on the ground, in space, in cyberspace and in the air” – would cover an area of ​​several thousand kilometers and detect enemy movements or the deployment of weapons, informing “all NATO countries in real time”.

The AI-guided system would strengthen NATO's existing weapons and deployed forces, Lowin pointed out.

The German newspaper reported that in Romania and Poland there are programs in which the proposed capabilities are tested, and all NATO members must take steps to make the system operational by the end of 2027.

Polish Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz told Gazeta Wyborcza daily that Warsaw was about to sign a contract for “Europe's largest anti-drone system”.

The official did not say how much the deal, which involves “various types of weaponry,” would cost, or which consortium he would sign the contract with in late January.

He said the initiative was meant to respond to “an urgent operational demand”.