Multiple airspace incursions over Denmark in recent weeks, which disrupted air traffic at several airports, have jolted European Union (EU) leaders into action. At the Copenhagen summit on Wednesday, EU member states discussed having a “Drone Wall” to counter the growing threat of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) allegedly operated by Russia.
A similar incident of airspace incursion happened with fighter jets over Estonia and UAVs over Poland, which resulted in invoking Article 4 of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) founding treaty earlier in September.
Article 4 of the treaty allows a member country to request consultations with other Nato members when its territorial integrity, political independence, or security is threatened. It is a diplomatic tool for addressing urgent concerns and coordinating a response, but unlike Article 5, it does not automatically trigger a military or collective defence action.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen called for an EU network of “anti-drone measures”, emphasising that “Europe must be able to defend itself from such intrusions”. This she told Reuters after the EU summit.
The escalation pattern of aerial intrusions has now catalysed discussions among EU leaders to build a continent-wide defensive network of Drone Wall aimed at shielding Europe from the next generation of low-cost, high-impact threats hovering over its skies.
What is Drone Wall?
Unlike a literal barrier, Drone Wall is a layered defence architecture: a network system of sensors, data links, and counter-measures designed to detect, track, and neutralise hostile small and medium UAVs before they can threaten airports, military bases, or cities.
The EU envisions combining long-range radars and electro-optical/acoustic sensors with radio-frequency detection and intelligence feeds, then applying proportionate counter-measure options from jamming and spoofing to interceptor drones, nets or low-power directed-energy systems, depending on the threat and the risk to civilians.
Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, described it as “a network of sensors and weapons to detect, track and neutralise intruding unmanned aircraft”, and argued priority should be given to the eastern flank while shielding the whole continent.
She raised similar concerns, targeting Russia, and pushed the Drone-Wall concept as part of wider defence reinforcement.
According to Reuters, Nato Secretary-General Mark Rutte endorsed the proposal for a European “Drone Wall”, calling it an “excellent idea” that is both “timely and necessary”. Rutte emphasised the economic rationale behind developing such a defence system, noting that traditional air-defence methods are unsustainable against the rising tide of cheap unmanned aerial threats.
“In the end, we cannot spend millions of euros or dollars on missiles to take out drones that cost only a couple of thousand,” he said, underscoring the urgent need for a more cost-effective and scalable response to the growing use of drones in hybrid warfare across 27 member states of the EU.
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 "EU working on 'Drone Wall' after multiple airspace incursions from Russia")
