Awareness of the real threat from russian long-range strike drones has pushed EU countries to actively look for adequate solutions, now grouped under the general label drone wall. That is the term European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen used, saying it should stretch from the Baltic to the Black Sea.
What exactly is meant by this project is unknown at present. Moreover, there is unlikely to be a clear understanding yet of its structure and tools. The name itself may simply be a victim of the drone topic's popularity.
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A whole series of projects in European countries has received similar names. For example, already in May 2024 the idea of a drone wall was discussed in the Baltic states, Poland, Norway and Finland, while Estonia in June this year specified a practical implementation. The Ukrainian solution which bets on FPV drones against russian mass assaults was also called a drone wall. In April this year information even surfaced about a German initiative under the same name.
It very much appears that we are dealing with an abstract concept: the deployment of a broad, continuous network for detecting and countering enemy drones that would combine ground, air and space-based threat detection assets, include thousands of UAVs, and feature mobile platforms to fight drones.
Based on available information, concrete systems to fill this conceptual idea have not yet been chosen. Most likely, implementers for this overall program have not been assigned, and the final form of the entire system may still be under development assuming, of course, that the customer has already formulated and approved technical requirements, which is where development should begin.
So far nothing is known about any of these stages. It is quite possible that EU countries currently only have a broad "all good, against all bad" concept and an ultimate goal to obtain effective protection from drones.
At present that protection simply does not exist, because what European NATO countries can do now is, for example, shoot down 4 foam russian Gerbera UAVs out of 20, while spending 245 times more just on ammunition.
The only real response to this can be a massive reduction in the cost of countermeasures. That said, it must be understood that inexpensive protection against Shahed-type UAVs does not exist thats wishful thinking. Moreover, russia constantly seeks ways to circumvent Ukrainian solutions, while Ukraine has real combat experience and responds to new enemy measures.
In other words, without Ukrainian experience, whatever the EU can conceptually design now will only address the current realities of drone warfare as of today, not as of the moment the system is actually deployed. Given the pace of technological change, such a system could be obsolete by the time its design is finalized.
Therefore the only chance to create something effective is continuous exchange and cooperation with Ukrainian developers and military personnel to analyze both russian threats and countermeasures. And to be able to test the effectiveness of those countermeasures in practice in Ukraine which is far better than any theoretical assessments or sterile proving-ground trials.
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