“Drone defense, of course, but not by a drone wall,” he stressed, adding that the priority is to make sure that development and procurement processes are flexible enough because of how fast the technology is evolving.
His comments come as drones violated Polish, Romanian, Danish and Norwegian airspace in the past weeks; Russian fighter jets also crossed into Estonian airspace before being chased off. That’s increasing pressure on NATO and the EU to respond.
Last week, Kubilius hosted a meeting with eastern flank countries, including Bulgaria, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Hungary and Slovakia to discuss a drone wall.
He has previously said that such a project could be ready in a year; the Commission is working on the scheme’s technical and financial details.
The drone wall plan will be on the agenda of Wednesday’s informal meeting of European leaders in Copenhagen.
Invest faster
Despite that worry about over-committing to a drone wall, EU and NATO countries should swiftly develop and purchase counter-drone technology, Dutch Defense Minister Ruben Brekelmans said, speaking on the same panel.