Trenches, bunkers being built on border_ preparation for potential conflict between NATO and Russia

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Along Estonia’s border with Russia, authorities are expanding a new border fence and building anti-tank ditches and bunkers in preparation for a potential conflict between NATO and Russia.

According to the Associated Press, these defenses will not stop the immediate threat the alliance faces from drones and electronic warfare.

From the Baltic to the Black Sea, countries bordering Russia, Belarus and Ukraine are grappling with the fallout from Moscow’s war in Ukraine.

The incursion of about 20 Russian drones into Poland has exposed gaps in NATO’s air defenses.

Multimillion-dollar planes have taken to the air to respond to the thousands of dollar drones that crashed in the Polish countryside.

Faced with a growing problem, defense ministers from the EU’s eastern borders will meet on Friday to discuss creating a “drone wall” along the bloc’s eastern flank.

But while officials say the alliance knows how to detect missile threats, countering drones is a bigger challenge.

In Poland, “most drones have not been detected,” said Hanno Pevkur, Estonia’s defense minister. “That’s a real gap that we need to address.”

Military and defense officials from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania — NATO’s Baltic frontline with Russia — told The Associated Press that protecting against drones requires solving a complex set of technological, financial and bureaucratic problems.

Senior European officials are increasingly backing the idea of ​​a “drone wall” along the European Union’s eastern border, despite a joint proposal by Estonia and Lithuania that was denied EU funding in March.

“Drones are not mosquitoes,” Pevkur said, suggesting they are unlikely to be hit by an “electronic wall” on NATO borders.

There are many different types of drones: reconnaissance and surveillance, high-altitude and strike drones, as well as fiber-optic drones that connect to an operator with a thin cable and cannot be jammed.

“Combating these drones requires a very sophisticated approach,” he added.