What is a ‘drone wall’? Europe backs response to Russia amid Ukraine war

With that in mind, some European officials have already poured cold water on the idea.

“I very much appreciate the idea of a drone wall, but we should pay attention to manage expectations,” German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said at the Warsaw Security Forum earlier this week.

“We have to think and act in priorities, and there are others,” Pistorius added. “Drone defense, of course, but not by a drone wall.”

That hesitancy is echoed by some analysts, who said the concept currently lacked clarity.

“I’m not against it, but I don’t understand it,” said retired Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, the former commander of the U.S. Army in Europe from 2014 to late 2017.

“Everybody’s got cool ideas,” he told NBC News from the Warsaw Security Forum. “But they’re not attached or anchored in an objective or an overall plan.”

For its part, the Kremlin has criticized the growing talk. “As history has shown, erecting walls is always a bad thing,” spokesman Dmitry Peskov said this week.

Analysts nonetheless agreed on the urgency of strengthening Europe’s defenses, “drone wall” or not.

There’s a real risk of “wider Russian aggression against a NATO member in the coming years,” warned Justin Bronk, a senior research fellow specializing in air power and technology at RUSI.

“We desperately need a far greater slew of capabilities to be able to economically and sustainably shoot down UAVs,” he said, referring to Russian drones.

Right now, Bronk added, “we’re not ready.”