The drone attack on Poland showed the vulnerability of NATO air defense. Allies have not yet learned to respond cohesively to what Ukraine faces daily, writes Financial Times. Alliance fighters were scrambled to intercept and shot down several devices, but most drones fulfilled their role — distraction and depletion of air defense systems.
Former US Army commander in Europe Ben Hodges stated that the incident showed a critical weakness in European defense systems. He emphasized that Europe needs a multi-layered, integrated air defense system that will allow effective response to massive attacks, rather than wasting modern fighters on destroying cheap decoy drones.
As notes Politico, the Alliance shot down about three drones out of 19, while Ukrainians usually destroy 80–90%, despite much larger-scale attacks.
At the same time, according to the publication, five drones flew directly towards a NATO base before being intercepted by Dutch Lockheed Martin F-35 fighters. It is also reported that a NATO tanker aircraft, an Italian reconnaissance aircraft, and a German Patriot air defense system participated in the operation. This equipment worth billions of dollars to counter cheap Russian drones «Gerbera» — copies of Iranian «Shaheds», production of which is estimated at $10,000.
Ukraine offered its help to the neighboring country. Volodymyr Zelensky emphasized that American MIM-104 Patriot SAMs and Franco-Italian SAMP/T SAMs, costing hundreds of millions of dollars each, are not a reasonable option for fighting cheap Russian kamikaze drones. Ukraine has developed its own very cheap devices to destroy Russian drones. It uses electronic warfare means, as well as produces thousands of interceptor drones per month.