It took almost two years since the fall of a russian cruise missile in the middle of Poland and two more airspace violations for Warsaw to start actively searching for solutions for preventing such situations in the future. Polish parliament was submitted a draft law seeking to create a network of lookout towers to supplement the existing and planned network of radar stations. The project was labeled "Spiderweb" [Pajęczyna] and is grounded on already available infrastructure.
Described by Defence24, the idea is to use towers for civilian use, foremostly fire lookouts. Those are scattered across the country, rising 35 meters in average height, and provide for observation in a 10–15 km radius.
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About 40% of such towers are automated and have cameras for computer monitoring, while some still require personnel to be present and look out for fires. In addition, mobile network operators will be financially encouraged to give access to their cell towers to install special sensors and cameras to observe the adjacent territories. The said sensors are electro-optical threat detection systems that automatically spot and identify moving objects.
After modernization, the system can be expanded by utilizing the cameras of surveillance systems on the roads, ports, and other facilities of civil infrastructure.
On a note from Defense Express, most likely Poland won't ignore the Ukrainian experience in countering russian missiles and installs acoustic sensors on the towers as well. Otherwise, the ability of the system to detect threats could be limited by weather or lighting conditions.
After all, the Poles decided to follow in the footsteps of Ukraine and introduce an analog of the "ePPO" mobile application which allows any Ukrainian who sees a flying object in the skies to promptly notify the local authorities. However, contrary to Ukraine where any civilian has access, in Poland, they will only give the app to people after a training course.
When needed, such a person will have to take a position with a good view of surroundings, identify the type and approximate vector of its movement, and if possible, specify the exact type (i.e. model) of the aircraft, its altitude, and distance from the observation point. This information will be circulating through a unified network, so the lookout posts in the estimated way of the target will receive updates about where it is and which way they need to watch out for.
Defence24 notes that the law draft is expected to be presented to the Polish Parliament at the next session and get the highest priority.
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