Why is Europe struggling to defend against drones?
A series of drone incursions into protected airspace across Europe has thrown the continent's defences in the spotlight. Airports are in a particularly vulnerable position, but what can be done?
The closure of Aalborg airport in northern Denmark this week, following the incursion of drones into its airspace, is the latest in a string of recent airport shutdowns caused by the devices.
Unmanned drones were also reportedly spotted at Esbjerg, Sonderborg and Skrydstrup airports — the latter, alongside Aalborg, is also used for Royal Danish Air Forces purposes. Earlier this week, sightings caused a temporary suspension of flights at the airport in Copenhagen, the country's capital.
Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen said at a press conference that "everything points to this being the work of a professional actor" adding that "it certainly does not look like a coincidence. It looks systematic. This is what I would define as a hybrid attack."
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As police continue to investigate the affair, Justice Minister Peter Hummelgaard has said he was "not ruling out anything in terms of who is behind this."
While there is no confirmation that Russia was involved in the drone incident in Denmark, recent incursions by uncrewed aircraft into the east of Europe have led NATO to call for action. In response to Russian drones having entered Polish airspace in early September, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte announced the alliance was launching a new operation, "Eastern Sentry," to protect its eastern flank.
Danish authorities are just the latest to find drones difficult to identify and contain, and dealing with them in an airport setting poses a very different set of challenges to those normally faced by NATO or the EU.
Why can't airports prevent drone incursions?
Drones, or some type of uncrewed combat aerial vehicles, have been extensively used by militaries since the 1970s, and are now a feature of modern warfare, particularly in Russia's war in Ukraine. But the technology has also been advancing rapidly in the commercial market, according to Richard Gill, founder and CEO of the security business Drone Defence.
"Drones are easier to get hold of and easier to use," he told DW. "And the price point is coming right down. People can do stuff now in their garden shed that it would have taken advanced military capability to be able to do only 10 or 15 years ago."
That poses a real problem for airports, who must keep tight controls over their airspace. "It's been shown once again, in the Denmark case, that flying with drones above airports will lead to suspended air traffic," Jukka Savolainen from The European Center of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats (Hybrid CoE), told DW. "No risk to aviation security is tolerated."
This precedent, which has previously led to airport shutdowns across the world — from New York and London to Dubai and Frankfurt — means those with bad intentions can cause severe disruptions. But the ease of access means hobbyists can also easily shut down an airport if they stray in their navigation.
Why can't airports just shoot down drones?
In warfare, drones are shot down all the time. But though security agencies may have suspicions, it is often impossible to determine from afar whether a drone is military or recreational before it flies out of sight. Even on the occasion that it is possible, there are significant safety concerns.
"It's not easy to hit a drone with kinetic projectiles, so you must fire a lot of them to reach a satisfactory likelihood of a hit," said Savolainen from Hybrid CoE, which works to counter hybrid threats in conjunction with EU and NATO member states. "Even if you do hit, the vast majority of projectiles are such that they drop down after being fired. So I couldn't recommend shooting in densely populated areas, unless the drone must be seen as a source of immediate and dangerous threat."
Given that the threat is difficult to assess at a distance, and that airports are often close to built-up areas, the dangers of collateral damage, plus the cost of shooting down a drone, make it all but impossible. Gill adds that, given the speed of drone development, there is a lag in legislation that leaves airports vulnerable.
"Not every airport has a detection system capable of understanding what's going on. So, we normally rely on people on the ground, security staff, or the members of staff reporting sightings. And then how do you respond to that, if you were going to shoot them down, who's going to do the shooting?" he asked. Commercial airports currently have no legal basis on which to shoot down drones.
What other ways are there to defend against drones?
Unlike military or dual-use air bases, strictly commerical airports, particularly those that aren't well-resourced international hubs, don't have many tools at their disposal. Identifying drones through radio frequency, video transmissions, radar or security cameras are among the preventative measures airports have, though stopping them even once identified remains a challenge.
As a result, suspending activity —usually an extreme measure — is often the first port of call once drones are spotted in an unauthorised area.
There are an increasing number of products aimed at stopping drones, both for the commercial and military market. But upgrading airport defence systems is a costly business, and would likely require constant upgrading.
Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary has suggested that governments should foot the bill for a problem he's described as an "irritant."
"This is a security issue for national governments. It's not something you'd ask airports to do," he said.
The EU appears, to some degree, to accept that analysis. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on 10 September that Europe must "build a drone wall" in an attempt to curb the threat of further drone incursion into sovereign airspace.
Dubbed Eastern Flank Watch, the wall is to be a cooperative project involving Poland, Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania aiming to strengthen defences on the EU's eastern borders. It will use similar measures to those available to the airports but, crucially, may be also able to take down threatening drones, though details on that are thin. It will also reportedly be much cheaper per use than the current air defence systems, which were designed with more traditional manned aircraft and missiles in mind.
"This is not an abstract ambition," von der Leyen said of the plans. "It is the bedrock of credible defence."
