{"id":4384,"date":"2025-09-30T14:10:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-30T14:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/national\/british-drone-wall-will-protect-nato-from-russia\/"},"modified":"2026-02-08T05:19:03","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T05:19:03","slug":"british-drone-wall-will-protect-nato-from-russia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/national\/british-drone-wall-will-protect-nato-from-russia\/","title":{"rendered":"British drone wall will protect Nato from Russia"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By Sean Rayment <\/em><\/p>\n

British-made unmanned air vehicles will be deployed to create a \u201cdrone wall\u201d to protect Nato from Russian aggression, the UK government has revealed.<\/p>\n

The new low-cost unmanned craft, developed in collaboration with Ukraine, are part of a strategy to deter Russian jets and drones from attempting to penetrate the alliance\u2019s eastern flank.<\/p>\n

European ministers are concerned about a spate of Russian incursions into Polish and Estonian airspace, which prompted Britain to deploy RAF Typhoons over Poland in a show of force to Moscow.<\/p>\n

A suspected Russian \u201chybrid\u201d incursion of drones this week took place in Denmark and Norway. Reports revealed that unidentified drones were seen over the Karlskrona archipelago in Sweden, a few miles from a naval base.<\/p>\n

Residents of the islands of Sturk\u00f6 and Tjurk\u00f6 reported the drones, and police arriving at the scene spotted one of them, according to the report.<\/p>\n

John Healey, the Defence Secretary, said that the \u201creckless\u201d and \u201cdangerous\u201d manoeuvres would be met with a response from Nato countries, including new border defences.<\/p>\n

The UK has launched a drone-building programme with Ukraine, codenamed Project Octopus, which will see interceptor drones built in British factories within weeks and deployed to deter Russian aggression.<\/p>\n

European ministers met recently to discuss the \u201cdrone wall\u201d concept, which would involve stationing ground-launched drones on the border to tackle Russian drones or missiles.<\/p>\n

Mr Healey said the UK would mass-produce the drones using \u201cmodern manufacturing techniques that we have in this country that they haven\u2019t got\u201d and \u201csupply them back in the thousands to help Ukraine defend themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Britain and Ukraine will jointly own the intellectual property of the drones, in a first-of-its-kind deal that will also allow them to be deployed in Nato countries.<\/p>\n

They have already proven effective against Iranian-made Shahed suicide drones, Mr Healey said, but have a production cost of less than a tenth of their rivals. He added that the system could eventually also be used as a missile defence system in the UK to protect military sites and critical national infrastructure.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re ready with allies through Nato to demonstrate to Putin that his aggression and his incursions, reckless or intentional, will be challenged,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

It came as fresh sightings of drones were reported over Denmark\u2019s largest military base.<\/p>\n

The Danish defence ministry said the drones were \u201cobserved at several Danish defence facilities\u201d overnight on Friday, following a \u201chybrid attack\u201d on the country earlier in the week, with Russia suspected to be responsible.<\/p>\n

Troels Lund Poulsen, Denmark\u2019s deputy prime minister, said at the time that the drones were probably launched by a \u201cprofessional actor\u201d but refrained from accusing Russia of involvement.<\/p>\n

Mette Frederiksen, Denmark\u2019s prime minister, said on Thursday: \u201cThere is one main country that poses a threat to Europe\u2019s security, and it is Russia.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the same time, Oslo Airport closed its airspace for three hours after sightings of two drones. Norwegian police are also investigating a possible drone observation at \u00d8rland main air station on Norway\u2019s west coast. It is Norway\u2019s largest military air base and the main station for its military aircraft.<\/p>\n

Moscow said it \u201cfirmly rejects\u201d the suggestion of any Russian involvement.<\/p>\n

Estonia has also reported that its airspace was violated by three Russian MiG-31 fighter jets, which remained over the country \u201cwithout permission\u201d for 12 minutes. In response, the country is extending a fence along its border with Russia and building anti-tank ditches as a precaution against a land war with President Vladimir Putin.<\/p>\n

Both Donald Trump and Mark Rutte, the Nato secretary-general, have said that members of the alliance should target Russian forces that violate their airspace where necessary. Allies have called for Moscow not to escalate the war in Ukraine into a wider conflict with Nato in Europe.<\/p>\n

Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, told the UN this week that Europe must stop Putin before the war becomes \u201cwider and deeper.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Healey also announced a new \u201cforces first\u201d housebuilding programme on surplus land owned by the Ministry of Defence, which he said would help solve the problem of substandard accommodation for serving personnel.<\/p>\n

He said 100,000 homes could be built on the land in the coming years, with \u201cthousands\u201d in this parliament, contributing to the government\u2019s target of building 1.5 million houses by 2029. <\/p>\n

Forces\u2019 families and veterans will be given \u201cfirst dibs\u201d to buy or rent the properties on MoD land.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to change the recognition that there is amongst the forces and their families, that they recognise we\u2019re a government on their side,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

A pilot scheme for the programme has begun at MoD Feltham in Middlesex, where a housing site is under development that officials believe could create hundreds of homes and jobs.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Sean Rayment British-made unmanned air vehicles will be deployed to create a \u201cdrone wall\u201d to protect Nato from Russian aggression, the UK government has revealed. The new low-cost unmanned craft, developed in collaboration with Ukraine, are part of a strategy to deter Russian jets and drones from attempting to penetrate the alliance\u2019s eastern flank.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4385,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-4384","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ukraine-war"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/national\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/national\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/national\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/national\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/national\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4384"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/national\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4384\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4386,"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/national\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4384\/revisions\/4386"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/national\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/national\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/national\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/national\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}