Finland’s Minister of Defense Antti Hakkanen says Europe is competing with time to improve its defensive capabilities, build so-called drone walls, and build so-called drone walls to counter the increased invasion from Russia.
“When they (Russia) ran out of missiles, they started producing a lot of drones, so this changed the picture of threat,” Hekkanen said.
He said Europe faces many problems from the recent wave of Russia’s airspace violations.
Häkkänen pointed out the enormous costs of negating them and the dangers they pose to the population if they were shot down in civilian areas.
“Everyone is challenging how to counter the drone threat in a cost-effective way, especially when it’s happening near an airport, without doing too much collateral damage,” he explained.
“It’s extremely difficult to use all the troops in full spectrum battles and drop drones into a non-collateralized civilian area,” he said.
Häkkänen said Russia always exploits weakness, especially when Europe and the West are “apart and unprepared.”
“We know that whenever Russia looks at the window of opportunity, it is always actively operated throughout history,” he said.
“If they believe the West is a bit weaker and a bit of a mess politically, it probably isn’t a form of defence and I think they’ll have an opportunity to take more land again,” they pointed out.
“That’s what they thought in 2014 and 2022,” he said.
2014 refers to the illegal annexation of Russia’s Crimea, and 2022 was the year when Russia began a full-scale invasion of the country, and is a war that is currently underway to this day.
“So to avoid that threat that Europeans have to speed up their investment. Real investment. There must be a sense of urgency,” he advised.
What is the wall of the drone?
Supported by the European Commission, the drone wall aims to combine detection and strike systems that need to extend along the borders of at least 10 countries, including Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland.
“The drone wall is not a wall, it’s a system of systems,” Sven Kruck, co-CEO of German drone maker Quantum Systems, told Euronows.
“Integrated reconnaissance, sensor fusion and defense over thousands of kilometres” added, “In the core, this project is a network of sensors and defense systems aimed at protecting the eastern side of NATO.”
This is central to European defence plans for the coming years, but there have already been disagreements about the time it takes to operate.
For example, Latvian Prime Minister Evika Syria told reporters he believes the drone wall along the eastern flank could become “feasible” within “one year, a year, a half.”
This contradicts the comments made by German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius at the Warsaw security forum earlier this week, where such a project “will not be realized in the next three or four years.”
Whatever the timeline, Europe and NATO strongly suspect that Russia is behind recent airspace violations as part of a hybrid war that includes misinformation and spreading cyberattacks.
Defense expenditure
Häkkänen says NATO should “quickly” launch its commitment to spending up to 5% GDP on defense within the shortest possible time frame.
All 32 NATO allies agreed to increase defence spending from 2% to 5% of GDP at the NATO summit in The Hague in July, promoting US President Donald Trump.
The 5% figure is divided into 3.5% in core defense spending and 1.5% in “defense and security-related spending.”
“We hope that new NATO’s commitment to spending to 3.5-5% will be speeding up quickly,” he said.
“The NATO agreement was that we had to be fully prepared for 3.5% spending over a decade. No, no, we need to start right away,” warned Häkkänen.
Häkkänen is one of the defense ministers of NATO’s latest member states. In response to the full-scale invasion of Ukrainian invasion, both Finland and Sweden have been jointly submitted to abandon decades of neutrality and join the alliance.
Finnish officials joined in April 2023, while Sweden joined early the following year.
“There are some gaps in NATO collective defense. These gaps need to be filled quickly,” he said.
The Trump administration has repeatedly told Europe that its defense priorities are at home and that Washington can no longer rely on to ensure European security.
Washington has also suspended its military aid package to Ukraine, but the US is expected to announce a substantial agreement on the purchase of long-range weapons that Europe could pay.
Nevertheless, when Congress approved more than $40 billion in military aid in one package, it is a sharp deviation in contrast to the Biden administration.
“The US says they are turning the balance into the Indo-Pacific region and its homeland security,” explained Häkkänen.
“And we’re looking at the outcome. Europeans have to pay a fair distribution and buy equipment to fill the US gap,” he told Euronows.
