Poland unveils Europe's largest anti-drone system as part of preparations against Russian threats

Cezary Tomczyk, state secretary at Poland's Ministry of Defence, has given new details about a new €2bn (£2.3bn) anti-drone system, which will be the largest of its kind on the continent and capable of detecting and neutralising enemy drones.  

The system, named San after a river in southeastern Poland, will be deployed along Poland's northern and eastern borders, Tomczyk said in an interview with this author. He added that it should be operational by this summer, much sooner than the EU's anti-drone wall.

The San will be integrated as the lowest tier in a network of air defense systems that Poland has built, which already includes the long-range Wisła, short-range Narew, and very short-range Pilica Plus systems.

“This is a system built for wartime defense purposes,” Tomczyk told this author. “But, at least in some parts, it can be used in peacetime.”

This direct line, connecting preparations for a full-scale conventional war with responses to the shadow war being accelerated by Russia, is what separates Poland from the rest of the Western alliance and has placed it at the forefront of military innovation in NATO.

The European Union's roadmap for defense preparedness, published in October, outlined a series of measures to transform Europe's ability to defend against Russia by 2030 – along with a drone initiative that would become operational by the end of next year.

Since that announcement, Moscow has demonstrated the inadequacy of the plans by sabotaging a Polish railway connecting Warsaw with Ukraine, among other things. The message was clear: the Kremlin would continue its hybrid operations and is already threatening the critical infrastructure of NATO member states in ways that undermine their national security.

As ambitious as European plans are, they are too long-term to confront the new, even more aggressive, phase of Russian hybrid warfare being waged in NATO's East.

As it focuses on preparations for a full-scale continental war, the alliance faces an immediate threat of a prolonged and destabilizing period of Russian operations to target alliance weaknesses, without doing enough to activate NATO's collective defense.

As NATO's third-largest army and the largest economy in the alliance's east, Poland has found itself at the center of this vortex, facing not only Russian drone incursions and rail bombings, but also constant sabotage, arson, and cyberattacks.

While the country has prepared for a generational war with Moscow, like the rest of NATO, it has also treated Moscow's shadow war campaign as a risk inseparable from the broader Russian threat to Europe.

In the process, it has developed its own domestic defense policy against Russian hybrid warfare – and shaped the alliance-wide response. This includes Warsaw’s $2.5 billion project to build 700 km (435 miles) of physical fortifications and high-tech defense networks along its eastern border, dubbed Eastern Shield.

Now, Poland has begun to use its diverse defensive arsenal against the more immediate threats it faces from Moscow. Since Russia's military incursion with drones into its airspace in September, Warsaw has introduced a series of new measures to counter the new phase in the Russia-NATO shadow war.

The first step was the US-made Merops anti-drone system, a mobile and highly mobile anti-drone drone that can be launched from the back of a truck. Then came Operation Horizon, which paved the way for the deployment of 10,000 soldiers to protect vital infrastructure and the development of a mobile app for citizens to report potential acts of sabotage or hybrid warfare.

Then came San, the jewel in the crown of Poland's response.

At a time of doubts about the US commitment to transatlantic security, Poland will be NATO's leading star in its short-term plan for hybrid defense.

However, its role in shaping NATO's direction could go even further, according to Tomczyk. Alongside Poland's military plans, he wants a response to Russia's shadow war campaign that focuses more on active deterrence and less on passive defense.

“NATO, the EU and their members must respond symmetrically and adequately to what Russia is doing,” he said. “And that is exactly what we will do.”

NATO officials have already hinted at the possibility of preemptive cyber and other attacks against Russia due to Putin's actions in Europe, and, while Polish military leaders have yet to move in this direction, Warsaw is in an ideal position to pioneer such a change.

Having long relied on the US and its security umbrella to protect it from oppressors, Poland will not expect its Western European allies to adapt their military policies and strategic approaches to Russia’s growing threat to NATO’s east, especially now that Washington is looking less reliable and, in some cases, like Greenland, a potential adversary.

Although Warsaw still has a long way to go before achieving regional power status in Europe, out of sheer necessity, it will continue to tailor its response to Russia on its own terms – drawing the rest of NATO along with it.

The Geo Post