Five European nations have announced a new program to produce low-cost air defense systems and autonomous drones using Ukrainian expertise, hard-won over the past four years fighting against Russia.
Friday’s initiative of the five nations — France, Poland, Germany, the UK and Italy — comes as one of many European efforts to bolster defense along their borders, like a “drone wall ” with Russia and Ukraine to better detect, track and intercept drones violating Europe’s airspace.
Both Moscow and Kyiv have cutting-edge drone warfare capabilities forged in the grim laboratory of war where battlefield innovations have rewritten modern battle tactics.
Photo: EPA
Poland is already working with Ukraine on drone technology in joint military training programs and manufacturing projects.
Those efforts were sparked by a spate of incidents in which Europe’s borders and airports have been tested by rogue drones.
Russia has been blamed for some of them, but denies that anything was done on purpose or that it played a role.
“The UK and our E5 partners are stepping up — investing together in the next generation of air defense and autonomous systems to strengthen NATO’s shield,” British Minister for Defense Readiness and Industry Luke Pollard said.
“We have some of the best kit on the entire planet for shooting down air threats. The problem is to be effective at shooting down relatively low-cost missiles, drones, and other threats facing us,” he said. “We need to make sure that we’re matching the cost of the threats with the cost of defense.”
Polish Minister of Defense Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz said the group of countries signed an agreement to jointly invest in the production and procurement of drone-based strike capabilities as well as cheap drone defense systems in a program called Low-Cost Effectors and Autonomous Platforms.
“Combat technologies and techniques are changing rapidly — we must respond quickly and appropriately,” Kosiniak-Kamysz said. “We also signed a crucial commitment regarding the joint development of drone-based strike capabilities, low-cost joint production, and joint procurement of drone effectors, i.e, combat payloads, using artificial intelligence.”
When Russian drones entered Polish airspace in September last year, Warsaw and its NATO allies used multimillion-dollar jets to respond to drones that cost thousands, and that ended up crashing into the Polish countryside. Low-cost kinetic or electronic effectors would allow the detection and destruction of drones at a fraction of the price.
Europe has scrambled to arm itself in the wake of US President Donald Trump’s deep criticism of NATO, European defense spending and once iron-clad alliances. The EU has ramped up spending and is openly questioning even deeper military projects.
“Europe’s security is more uncertain than it has been in decades,” said the EU’s Foreign Policy Chief Kaja Kallas, citing Russian aggression, instability in the Middle East, China and a “redefined” alliance with the US. She said that the low-cost interceptor program exemplifies the European commitment to its own security.
“If we want to keep our country safe, we must strengthen our hard power. The good news is that we are already investing record sums in defense. Europe is stepping up. But it’s not about competing with NATO. It’s about making Europe stronger within NATO. A stronger Europe makes the alliance also stronger,” she said.
The 32-nation military alliance has been shaken by the Trump administration.
His repeated threats to seize Greenland, a semiautonomous territory of NATO ally Denmark, and disparaging remarks about his NATO allies’ troops in Afghanistan drew another outcry.
While tensions over Greenland have subsided for now, the infighting has seriously undercut the ability of the world’s biggest security alliance to deter adversaries.
Crowds in Bangladesh are flocking to snap photographs with an unlikely social media star — an albino buffalo with flowing blond hair nicknamed “Donald Trump” that is due to be sacrificed within days. Owner Zia Uddin Mridha, 38, said his brother named the 700kg bull over its flowing helmet of hair resembling the signature look of the US president. “My younger brother picked this name because of the buffalo’s extraordinary hair,” he said at his farm in Narayanganj, just outside the capital, Dhaka. Mridha said that a constant stream of curious visitors — social media fans, onlookers and children — have come throughout
It began as a satirical online project. Now millions of young people in India are flocking to it as an outlet for their frustration. A parody political party called the Cockroach Janta Party, with the insect as its symbol, has exploded across India’s social media by turning absurdist humor into protest. Memes and short videos mocking corruption, joblessness and political dysfunction have flooded social media sites, where millions of users are embracing the cockroach — known for its ability to survive harsh conditions — as a tongue-in-cheek symbol of endurance. The online movement’s rise has been unusually rapid. The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP)
BIGGER ROLE: Beijing has said it maintains an impartial stance on the war in Ukraine, but by training Russian troops, China is far more involved than previously known China’s armed forces secretly trained about 200 Russian military personnel in China late last year, and some have since returned to fight in Ukraine, according to three European intelligence agencies and documents seen by Reuters. While China and Russia have held a number of joint military exercises since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Beijing has repeatedly said that it is neutral in the conflict and presents itself as a peace mediator. The covert training sessions, which predominantly focused on the use of drones, were outlined in a dual-language Russian-Chinese agreement signed by senior Russian and Chinese officers in Beijing on
HOTTER: While Indians are accustomed to summer heat, climate change has caused northwestern India to warm faster than other parts of the country, an academic said Roads and markets have emptied during afternoons and some farmers have switched to nighttime work to avoid scorching temperatures as a heat wave grips large parts of India. The India Meteorological Department forecast maximum temperatures for yesterday of about 45°C in the capital, New Delhi, where authorities have opened temporary “cooling zones” to help people cope. The weather department warned that conditions would likely persist across several northern regions in the coming days, with temperatures staying well above seasonal averages. Authorities urged people to stay indoors during the hottest hours and take precautions against heat-related illnesses. India declares a heat wave whenever maximum temperatures
RSS