The Chief of Staff of the Estonian Air Force, Colonel Fredi Karu, indicated that if the drone flying over Lake Peipsi had entered Estonian airspace, NATO fighters would be scrambled, writes the ERR News.
On the morning of the 24th of August, the Estonian Police and Border Guard Board (PPA) observed a drone flying over Lake Peipus, which later crashed into the lake about six kilometers from the Estonian border on the Russian side. It is not known whether the drone is related to the Ukrainian attack on the port of Ust-Luga, which is located about 50 kilometers from the Estonian border, or whether it was a Russian drone.
So far, drones coming from Belarus have already entered the airspace of Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, but such a situation has not yet been experienced in Estonia. The Baltic airspace is protected by the NATO Air Policing mission, and if the drone had entered Estonian airspace, fighter jets stationed in Estonia and Lithuania would have been scrambled.
The colonel outlined how this could happen on the 25th of August. He said that fighter jets take off as soon as an unidentified object enters Estonian airspace and go to identify it. Another question is whether and when force is used to shoot down the object, and various scenarios are possible.
ERR asked the colonel to explain how the armed forces are fighting drones and how well the Ämari Air Base is protected against them. Karu said that
the example of Ukraine shows that drones can hit anything that comes their way,
and air force bases and command posts are the main targets. “And there are various tools that can be used against drones, from electronic means to missiles launched by fighter jets and air defense systems,” Karu said.
Estonian Interior Minister Igor Taro said that the PPA had monitored the situation and then passed on the information to the armed forces, and that mutual cooperation was good. Taro said that the institution that first noticed the object passes on the information to the others, and there were no hitches in this matter – cooperation and reporting were going smoothly.
At the same time, Taro believes that improvements are possible in the division of responsibilities: “Currently, the situation is such that up to a certain altitude from the ground — when we are talking about low-flying objects — it is a matter of internal security. And everything above that is the domain of the defence forces.
This is definitely a point for discussion.”
The minister said that we need to talk about how effective the current division is, and that this will be discussed with the Estonian Minister of Defense in the coming days.
Taro pointed out that in the long term, we need to think about more effective protection against drones. He added that the peculiarity of drones is that relatively cheap tools can be used to overload air defense systems, which means that we must accept the fact that not every object requires the use of fighter jets. This is too expensive, and other ways must be found to control the situation. “At the moment, we have some capabilities. But if we look at the development of technology, the dynamic nature of the challenges, and what’s happening on the Russian side, then we should be ready to act much more effectively in the future and respond more efficiently to such threats and risks,” the minister said.
Taro referred to the creation of the so-called “wall of drones”, which could cost around 200 million over the next four years. He said that as long as Russia continues its hostilities in Ukraine, it is necessary to take into account that attacks are also taking place on Russian territory, and this is right next to Estonia. Therefore, the risk is very high.
Read also: Drone crashes into Russian part of Lake Peipus