Six NATO countries to create "drone wall" for border protection

Regional countries have agreed to create a “drone wall” to protect their external borders using unmanned aerial vehicles, Lithuanian Interior Minister Agnė Bilotaitė has said. 

According to LRT, she made the remarks after a meeting on Friday in Latvia with her counterparts from the other two Baltic states, Poland, Finland, and Norway.

“This is a completely new thing – a drone wall stretching from Norway to Poland – and the goal is to use drones and other technologies to protect our borders [...] against provocations from unfriendly countries and to prevent smuggling,” Bilotaitė told BNS.

To create such a “drone wall”, countries would use UAVs to monitor their border area, as well as anti-drone systems to stop drones from hostile countries being used for smuggling and provocations.

According to Bilotaitė, Lithuania has already made plans to step up the protection of its border with the help of drones. Lithuania’s State Border Guard Service has recently established a UAV unit and is in the process of acquiring additional drones and anti-drone systems, she stressed.

The ministers also agreed to organise joint evacuation drills in the countries involved, Bilotaitė said.

Lithuania’s preparedness is currently being assessed by an EU evacuation mission, which is expected to make its recommendations in June.