Poland plans to complete the construction of anti-drone fortifications along its border within two years to mitigate threats stemming from violation of airspace by Russia, Polish Defence Minister Cesar Tomczyk said Saturday.
“We expect to have the first capabilities of the system in roughly six months, perhaps even sooner. And the full system will take 24 months to complete,” Tomczyk said in an interview with the Guardian. The minister explained that the new air defence systems would be integrated into an older one built a decade ago. The defence wall will include machine guns, cannon, missiles and drone-jamming systems and other defence layers.
“Some of this is for use only in extreme or war conditions. For example, these multi-barrel machine guns are difficult to use in peacetime, because everything that goes up must go down,” the minister said. Tomczyk revealed that some of anti-drone systems have already been installed on the border with Russia’s ally Belarus.
Situated on NATO’s eastern flank, Poland has been on the frontline of NATO-Russia confrontation in recent months. In September, NATO and Poland scrambled fighter jets over Poland after Russian drones’ incursion into the Polish airspace. Dutch F-35As and Polish F-16s downed several Russian drones, with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk describing the incursion as a “large-scale provocation”. The Russian drones violating Polish airspace flew from the Ukrainian territory.
Poland was not the only NATO country subjected to air space incursions by Russia. Romania, Estonia, Nordic countries of Denmark and Norway have also reported violation of their airspace by Russia in the past few months. Earlier, in September, NATO announced its decision to upgrade its mission in the Baltic Sea after Denmark said it identified over strategic military installations in its territory and suspended the work of Copenhagen airport in response to several drone sightings in its airspace.
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