Poland does not have enough missiles to counter the swarms of drones that are becoming an increasingly common weapon of modern conflict. This was announced by retired Polish General Wlodzimierz Usarek on Monday in Warsaw during the presentation of the Alioth Foundation’s report on the state of air defense. The authors recommend creating an additional so-called artillery layer of the air defense system. The Warsaw correspondent TASR informs about it.
- Poland faces the challenge of insufficient defense against drone attacks.
- Expensive missiles against cheap drones are economically unsustainable.
- An artillery layer of defense against targets up to 9 km is proposed.
- Integrating artillery with missile systems will increase defense capabilities.
- The risk of collateral damage when using missiles on drones is significant.
According to the report, using expensive missiles or fighters to shoot down cheap drones is economically unsustainable. Usarek said that military thinking must respond to new types of threats. “The Army is training for a war that has already been,” he said, adding that modern conflicts require quick, precise and financially adequate solutions.
Therefore, the authors propose to create an additional artillery layer of air defense, capable of destroying targets up to a height of nine kilometers. It should be mobile, cheaper and use intelligent, precision-guided ammunition.
The report recommends that this new layer of defense be integrated with already existing anti-aircraft missile systems. According to the authors, the combination of missile and artillery systems should increase the efficiency of defense and reduce the risk that expensive means will be used against cheap targets.
The authors also pointed out the risk of collateral damage when destroying drones with missiles, in which debris or unexploded ordnance may fall on civilian objects, as happened in the recent downing of Russian drones, which violated Polish airspace. The Alioth Foundation, which is made up of former high-ranking Polish officers, is devoted to education and cooperation with the army and universities in addition to analytical activities.
