EU unveils anti-drone system to defend Europe from Russian attacks

The European Union has unveiled a strategy to bolster its defences, to be fully operational by the decade's end, amidst concerns over Russian incursions.

A key component is the "European Drone Defense Initiative," to detect, track, and neutralise rogue drones, following troubling airspace violations across Europe, some near Russian, Belarusian, and Ukrainian borders.

Complementing this is "Eastern Flank Watch," a scheme to fortify its eastern frontier across land, Baltic and Black seas, air, and against hybrid attacks.

Initial operation for both is December next year, the drone system fully functional by late 2027 and Eastern Flank Watch in full swing by the end of 2028.

Separate air and space shields are also envisioned.

Kaja Kallas, the EU's foreign policy chief, emphasised the urgency, stating: "Over the next few years, there must be a major buildup of European defense capabilities."

She added: "Russia has no capacity to launch an attack on the European Union today, but it could prepare itself in the years to come. Danger will not disappear, even if the war in Ukraine will end."

A new defense ‘road map’

The commission will submit its Defense Readiness Roadmap 2030 — essentially a check list of equipment for national governments to buy and deadlines to respect over the next five years — to the 27 EU leaders for their feedback at a summit in Brussels next week.

The early signs are positive. The issue was chewed over by the leaders in Copenhagen in early October, and their positions on how to respond to the incidents blamed on Russia have hardened.

“Europeans must take more responsibility of their own in defense capability,” German Chancellor Friederick Merz said on Thursday, hours before the “road map” was unveiled. “Europe must coordinate more closely and act with more determination, and quickly.”

The plan will require substantial funding and budgets are tight.

The commission estimates that EU defense spending this year will total around 392 billion euros ($457 billion), almost double the amount of four years ago, before Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

It believes that some 3.4 trillion euros ($4 trillion) will probably need to be spent on defense over the next decade. To help, it intends to propose boosting the EU’s long-term budget for defense and space to 131 billion euros ($153 billion).

A separate budget for improving the speed with which armies can move their equipment across Europe — by work on roads and bridges as well as air and sea ports — would also be boosted tenfold, to 17.6 billion euros ($20.5 billion).

Deadlines and Ukraine

The overarching aim of the Readiness 2030 road map is to encourage the member countries to decide who among them should take the lead on which projects, and to get them launched within the first six months of next year.

At least 40 per cent of military purchases would have to be done jointly — cutting costs and encouraging countries to use interoperable weapons and standards — by late 2027.

Projects, contracts and financing on “critical capabilities” — drones or satellites, for example — would need to be settled by the end of 2028, with the whole process finalized two years later.

Another key part of the plan is to provide security guarantees for Ukraine.

“Ukraine is still Europe’s first line of defense,” Kallas said. “The strongest security guarantee is a strong Ukrainian defense industry and strong Ukrainian army.”

One goal, she said, is “establishing a drone alliance with Ukraine by early next year.”