Following Russia’s drone incursion into European airspace, European Union officials are calling for the urgent construction of a “drone wall” along the bloc’s eastern borders. 

“There is no doubt: Europe’s eastern flank keeps all of Europe safe. From the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea,” President Ursula von der Leyen of the European Commission said Wednesday while delivering her State of the Union address. 

During her speech Ms. von der Leyen unveiled new plans to strengthen security, including launching an “Eastern Flank Watch” surveillance program and building a technologically advanced “drone wall” to protect against escalating Russian aerial incursions.

The European commissioner for economy and productivity, Valdis Dombrovskis, reiterated the commission’s commitment to creating a “Wall of Drones,” proclaiming on X that the EU “will defend every inch of its territory.”

The ambitious defense initiative has been discussed for months but is gaining momentum after more than a dozen Russian drones entered Polish airspace Wednesday, prompting Polish and NATO warplanes to scramble to shoot them down. 

NATO forces brought down at least five of the drones, marking the first time that Russian drones had been downed over a NATO country since the start of the war. The drones reached deeper into Poland than has been reported at any time during the war, and Poland’s operational command decried it as an “unprecedented violation of Polish airspace.” 

“Once again Russia tests frontier states, EU & NATO,” the European commissioner for defense and space, Andrius Kubilius, posted on X. He directed NATO member states to “urgently develop” a “drone wall” across the “entire EU Eastern flank” and  characterized the effort as “the most important common flagship project” facing the alliance. 

Several Baltic countries are already working to create a similar defense mechanism. The project, dubbed the “Baltic Drone Wall,” was proposed earlier this year by the Estonian Defense Industry Cluster and is already advancing through development phases. 

Such a wall would allow countries to detect threats earlier and streamline countermeasure decisions, the chief of strategy and communications at an Estonian defense firm, DefSecIntel, said. DefSecIntel represents just one of the dozen specialized companies that has joined the Baltic drone wall initiative.

The wall is expected to include “at least five layers composed in part of acoustic detection sensors, mobile camera systems, drone interceptors and effectors, radars, and jammers — feeding data into a central system for real-time threat awareness,” according to Defense News.

Drones have emerged as a central component of Ukraine’s defense strategy against Russia’s invasion. A recent study by the Royal United Services Institute estimated that drones were responsible for 60 to 70 percent of damaged or destroyed Russian military systems.

Russia has responded by scaling up its own drone production, escalating the technological arms race.