Kubilius urges Lithuania to prepare for drone swarms

LRT reported that European Commissioner for Defence and Space Andrius Kubilius has urged Lithuania to improve its air threat detection systems and prepare not only to shoot down individual drones but also to identify and counter drone swarms.

His comments followed the downing this week of a drone that entered Lithuanian airspace. Kubilius said the incident was welcome news, but warned that Lithuania’s current detection system has significant shortcomings.

He said an air alert had previously been issued after a flock of birds was mistaken for a drone. In his view, the radars and other systems currently in use do not yet reliably determine when a drone has entered Lithuanian airspace.

Kubilius said Lithuania needed a system capable of detecting both a single drone and a group of 100 drones. He also questioned whether the country was currently giving the issue enough attention.

He said the European Union was ready to help and was encouraging countries along the border from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea to implement a border guard project that would include what has sometimes been called a drone wall. He stressed that the rapid development of such systems during a crisis would require decisions to be made now.

Kubilius said authorities should not simply assume that existing capabilities were sufficient. He argued that Lithuania should invest in systems that could detect, hear and identify drones with certainty, rather than confuse them with birds.

He also said Lithuania did not need to wait for drones from Russia or Belarus to test its capabilities. The country could launch drones over its own territory to assess whether they could be detected and intercepted, he said.

A likely air threat was declared in Vilnius and Kaunas counties on Tuesday night after a drone was spotted. The alert was later cancelled after the drone was reported destroyed.

Allied Italian fighter jets that took off from the air base in Šiauliai shot down the drone using missiles. Initial information indicated that it might have been neutralised near the village of Navasiolkai in Alytus District, but the National Crisis Management Centre later said it was destroyed near the village of Pratkūnai in Kaišiadorys District.

Preliminary information indicated that the drone entered Lithuanian airspace from Belarus. Defence Minister Robertas Kaunas said on Tuesday that it was carrying explosives and had been neutralised.