Lithuania tests Ukrainian SkyFortress drone detection system

Lithuania is deploying a trial version of SkyFortress, a Ukrainian airspace monitoring system that detects low-flying objects through sound or radio signals, the Defence Ministry said Friday, LRT reported.

“Air threats are changing rapidly, so we are making decisions accordingly. Rather than developing everything from scratch, we are adapting systems already in use in Ukraine,” Defence Minister Robertas Kaunas said. He said the system would strengthen the first stage of the air defence chain: monitoring. Using artificial intelligence, it detects and tracks low-flying drones and cruise missiles.

The ministry said SkyFortress can classify in real time objects that produce acoustic or electromagnetic signatures. A contract signed this summer also provides for processing data collected by sensors, using libraries of digital acoustic and radio-frequency signatures based on unclassified data, and training personnel.

Testing will assess the system’s ability to detect and identify low-flying unmanned aircraft in Lithuania.

BNS reported that in September Italian fighter jets stationed in Šiauliai shot down a drone that had entered Lithuania from Belarus. It was the first drone shot down over Lithuania. In recent months, alerts about possible air threats have been issued as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues. Drones had previously been shot down in Latvia and Estonia.