European Commission President Ursula Von Der Leyen said in her September 10 State of the Union address that Europe “must heed the call” of the Baltic states to “build a drone wall”. “This is not an abstract ambition, it is the bedrock of credible defence,” she said earlier this month.  Since then, EU defence commissioner Andrius Kubilius told Reuters last week that he plans to call together the EU’s defence ministers for talks on creating a “drone wall” along the EU’s eastern border after Russian drones were shot down over Polish airspace.  Both Von Der Leyen and Kubilius are referring to the Baltic Drone Wall, a cooperative effort between Poland, Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to strengthen the EU and NATO’s eastern border.

Two companies of at least eight involved with the project say parts of the drone wall technology are already deployed but they are waiting to see whether other European governments will want to integrate their technology into their defence systems. “What we are expecting [from Kubilius’ meeting] … is confirmation that this problem is serious and they want to act,” said Jaanus Tamm, president and CEO of Estonian defence company DefSecIntel.  “What are the next steps for the actions? Not just ‘let’s meet again and … make another declaration, but [we’re hoping for] … a very concrete plan,” he told Euronews Next. (Euronews)