Europe And the New Air Threat: How Can the EU Improve its Defense Against Drones?

By Anneke Pelzer, reading time: 4:30 min

If you opened your phone in the morning of the 10th September you most likely were greeted by headlines like „Poland says it shot down Russian drones after airspace violation“ or „Poland downs drones in its airspace, becoming first NATO member to fire during war in Ukraine“. And it was surprising: the night before, at least 19 Russian drones invaded Polish airspace. This marked the most serious Russian provocation since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022. 

Considering attacks like the suspected demolition of power and data cables in the Baltic Seas in 2024 and disinformation campaigns that aimed to influence both the European Elections in 2024 in several countries, as well as the latest Moldovan elections, Europe already has found itself in a new grey area between war and peace before the incident on the 9th September. However, more and more drones have been spotted over key civilian and military sites in Europe, such as Copenhagen and Munich Airports, Norwegian energy platforms or German military sites. 

Clear evidence does not always exist, but experts and state officials suspect that the drones can be traced back to Russia. Not only is Europe now challenged to find a clear response towards the latest Russian provocations, but it also has to ask itself how prepared it really is for the increasing importance of drones in warfare.

Image: Uavtek, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

European fighter jets vs plywood drones

Drones have played a role in warfare since World War One, but have become increasingly relevant since the 1980s. At the moment, their importance becomes clear when looking at the war in Ukraine, where they have been the weapon causing the most casualties. However, it seems that Europe has not recognized the future potential of those flying vehicles until recently. „Our capabilities are really, for the time being, quite limited,“ admitted European Defense Commissioner Andrius Kubilius. When Russian Drones invaded Polish airspace in September, they were shot down by Dutch, Italian, Belgian and Polish fighter aircraft. 

While the Russian drones made of plywood and styrofoam approximately cost around €10 000, shooting them down using fighter jets cost NATO around 1.2 million euros, according to German newspaper Bild. „It’s unacceptable to shoot down drones costing one or two thousand dollars with missiles that may cost half a million or even a million dollars,“ NATO Secretary Mark Rutte said. This discrepancy cannot be a sustainable long-term solution against foreign drone invasions that Europe is seeking. 

Stepping up Defense 

Thus, the European Union now scrambles to step up its ability to protect itself from drones invading its airspace. Several member states have reacted by extending powers of their security forces to neutralize drones, namely Lithuania, France, Romania and Germany. With the European Defense Readiness Roadmap 2030, the EU has launched a program responding to the increased threat of Russia and Belarus by aiming to prepare Europe sufficiently for military confrontations by 2030. Multiple European Flagship projects have been proposed in the framework of Roadmap 2030, put forward in October 2025. These flagship projects are large scale initiatives across different sectors. 

The European Drone Defense Initiative, also called European Drone Wall, aims at setting up a multi-layered network to detect and neutralize drones based on capabilities of the EU’s member states. Before, the European air defense was focused on fast moving air threats, which is not apparent to deal with those new unmanned low-cost vehicles, as the night from the 9th to 10th September made obvious. Therefore, the EU plans to draw upon Ukraines battlefield experience. „We need to forget Silicon Valley - it’s in the past. Ukraine is the future,“ stated EU Defense Commissioner Andrius Kubilius. 

According to plans of the European Commission, the European Drone Defense Initiative is expected to start in the first months of 2026 and be fully functional by the end of 2027. But looking at the scope of different opinions on a realistic timespan in which the project could be realized, reaching from „within a year“ according to Gundbert Scherf, CEO of German defense company Helsing, to three to four years in opinion of German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, this schedule might be more flexible than the expected planning. 

The EU is not only worried about drone threats, but also about other methods used in Russia’s hybrid war against Europe. Consequently, another flagship project called Eastern Flank Watch has been proposed and focuses on protecting Eastern Europe’s borders against threats coming from Russia and Belarus, and is supposed to be up and running by the end of 2028. 

How to take down drones

In light of the stated, the EU has to take advantage of available technical options to install this „European Drone Wall“ to take down foreign drones. The option of shooting them down by firing from fighter jets cannot only be eliminated because of a significant cost discrepancy, but also because of threats to civilians. During the Russian Drone incursion, a missile fired from a fighter jet aiming to take down a drone, instead hit the roof of a polish house. Thankfully, no one was injured, but this is another reason to find more efficient and precise ways to eliminate drones.

At the moment, radio frequency jamming is effective against 80 to 90 percent of drones. The connection based on radio signals between drone and pilot gets detected and destroyed, which allows the interferer to push the drone away and land it in a controlled manner. However, constant technological developments make it harder not only to detect the drones in general, but also to interfere their signal connection, which challenges the long-term effectiveness of radio frequency jamming. Newly intercepted Russian drones used in the war in Ukraine have shown to be assisted by artificial intelligence and thus are able to find and attack their target on their own. But because they are not dependent on orders from a pilot they also do not have a signal that could be destroyed, which makes them irreversible to radio frequency jamming. 

All things considered, the EU not only has to strengthen their defense significantly to be sufficiently protected against threats from Russia and Belarus, but also has to accomplish this in a short time span during fast-paced technological developments in which the EU has to weigh in if it wants to succeed. For once in history, the Ukrainian war might hold an advantage for the EU: Ukraine already uses AI in drones for the last 100 meters when they are locked in on a specific target. This Ukrainian expertise could allow the EU to develop its defense system as well as new drone technologies more fast-paced and be one less step behind.