Nato chief says downing Russian drones with costly missiles ‘not sustainable’
Mark Rutte said the security alliance will soon deploy new technologies to tackle Russian jets crossing into Nato airspace
Western militaries cannot keep shooting down incoming drones with expensive missiles, Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte said on Thursday, adding that Nato is rapidly learning from Ukraine on how to counter Russian drones and will deploy new technologies in the coming weeks.
“It is not sustainable that you would take down thousand or two-thousand dollar costing drones with missiles that cost you maybe half a million or a million dollars,” Rutte said in an interview. “All of us are rapidly developing the technologies and learning from Ukrainians.”
Asked if Nato was lacking the adequate equipment, Rutte said “in the short term, yes”, adding that Nato was learning from the Ukrainians and rapidly developing technology to roll out in coming weeks.
Rutte said the effort was meant to ensure that “next to the more traditional way to deal with this, we have this interceptor technology at our hands”.
Nato countries have faced a series of violations by Russian jets and drones in recent days, incidents that posed an unprecedented test of the alliance’s credibility just as Moscow is intensifying attacks on Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure as well.
Poland shoots down Russian drones
For the past few days, allies have publicly disagreed about what to do about Russian jets crossing into Nato airspace: shoot them down or not. But at a tense meeting in Moscow, European diplomats warned the Kremlin this week that Nato is ready to respond to further violations of its airspace with full force, including by shooting down Russian planes.