Norway, Finland, Poland, and the Baltic States of Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia, all NATO members, are creating a “drone wall” along their shared borders with Russia. Estonian Interior Minister Lauri Läänemets says the technology will detect and repel hostile drones. Estonia plans to install the barrier along its entire eastern border and around its major cities.
“As we can see on the Ukrainian front, there is a constant technological race between adversaries and new ways to use drones in warfare,” said Läänemets. “The same is true for the various drones that people have access to. Being even a small step ahead of the opponent leads to greater success, but this success can be measured in days, as countermeasures are discovered with alarming speed for each measure, and the cycle continues,” he added.
Expensive U.S. drones have struggled to make an impact in Ukraine, proving highly vulnerable to Russian jamming. Ukrainian forces favor cheaper, off-the-shelf Chinese drones due to their greater reliability.
Like Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania are all former Soviet Socialist Republics. Estonia and Latvia are also home to large Russian minorities, which, coupled with their small size — both boast total populations of under two million — arguably renders them vulnerable to future Russian aggression.
In addition to the “drone wall,” Poland is starting a line of fortifications along its borders with Belarus and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, formerly Königsberg.
Dubbed the East Shield or ‘Tusk Line,’ after Prime Minister Donald Tusk, it will include hundreds of mines of anti-tank traps, ditches, and minefields.
