Modern conflicts have changed dramatically, and the West is not ready to respond to the "asymmetric threat" of drones, in the development of which Russia has excelled. This opinion was expressed by Robert Tollast, an expert at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) in London, in an interview with CNN.
According to Tollast, the issue is not that NATO cannot withstand large-scale UAV attacks. The Alliance uses aircraft, which is too expensive, he explained.
The main problem is that many Western defense technologies simply did not take into account this... asymmetric threat of drones.
"Penny" UAVs Against Expensive F-16s and F-35s
As CNN writes, Russia uses "Gerber" drones made of plywood and foam as "decoys." The price of such a drone is about $10,000. NATO F-16 and F-35 fighters of American production, costing several million dollars, can be used to intercept them.
This is an effective demonstration of force. But to get the planes in the air, you have to spend tens of thousands of dollars on maintenance and fuel.
"Wall of Drones" Will Help
Another expert, Johannes Pinnl, CEO of the British company MARSS (which produces interceptor drones), believes that new technologies should be used to protect against UAV attacks.
The border could be closed off by a wall of drones.
The "Wall of Drones" is a concept of a multi-layered network for detecting and intercepting drones. It is being promoted in the Baltic countries. However, NATO's procurement system is "not fully refined" to quickly implement such developments, Pinnl added.
Even if Europe can speed up the introduction of experimental technologies, the problem of volumes will still remain. Russia now assembles 5,500 Geranium drones and its cheap version, Gerber, per month at a factory in Tatarstan.
But Europe cannot yet produce enough "inexpensive missiles" so that their "price corresponds to the target that these missiles shoot down."
Read also on the topic:
- Plywood drone "Gerbera" and OTRK "Iskander" began to be used in a new way: not only bait for air defense
- Dummy tanks with a thermal signature and decoy drones: The National Interest praised Russia for its ability to use false targets
- Kamikaze drones "Geranium-2" will become 30% more powerful, but will sharply reduce the flight range
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