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Building NATO’s Drone Wall: An Extensible Shield for Allies and Others

Photo Credit: Adobe Stock


This OpEd was originally published in S.C. Media.

October 20, 2025

Author: David Mussington, ICIT Fellow + Co-Chair Center for FCEB Resilience


The moment

NATO faces a surge of hostile drones and electronic warfare that current defenses were not designed to defeat at scale, as seen in Ukraine and along the Alliance’s exposed flanks. The answer is an extensible “drone wall”: a layered, AI‑enabled, standards‑based protective mesh tied to NATO Integrated Air and Missile Defence (IAMD) that detects, decides, and defeats drones quickly and affordably. This approach matches recent NATO policy direction and procurement momentum while avoiding the cost trap of expending exquisite (and expensive) missiles on low‑cost threats.


What it is

The drone wall, now proposed as an extended “European Drone Defence Initiative” that covers more of the continent’s border, is not a concrete wall—it is a network of radar, radio frequency (RF), electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR), and acoustic sensors linked by common data standards, paired with non-kinetic disruptors, attritable interceptors, and emerging directed energy for leakers, all integrated into NATO’s air picture and airspace control doctrine. Interoperability depends on adopting SAPIENT (Sensor API ENabled Toolkit) as a common interface so any nation’s sensors and effectors can plug-and-fight, a path already moving through NATO venues and British standards updates. NATO Communications and Information Agency (NCIA) counter-drone interoperability exercises have demonstrated how to connect multi-vendor systems under realistic jamming and clutter to build a reliable coalition shield.


Why it works

Ukraine’s experience shows that wide-area non-kinetic disruption—like Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) spoofing—combined with local point defense can blunt mass, low-cost attacks and bend the cost curve in the defender’s favor. NATO leaders have stressed the need to field counter-drone capabilities in months, not years, and to prioritize low-cost sensors and effectors to sustain defense at scale. A standards-first, layered architecture lets allies contribute what they have now while upgrading over time without breaking interoperability.


AI as the engine

Modern counter-UAS depends on AI that fuses multi-sensor tracks, classifies targets in clutter, and automates cueing so operators act faster with fewer false alarms. AI-driven RF analytics surface anomalous control links and silent profiles early, improving triage during saturation attacks. Machine-learning methods detect GNSS spoofing and jamming in near-real time, enabling resilient positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) modes and dynamic geofence and engagement updates to keep the wall coherent under electronic warfare (EW) stress.


Policy framing for decision‑makers

The drone wall advances resilience—the capacity to absorb, adapt, and recover—by shifting from bespoke systems to standardized, testable, repeatable capabilities with measurable outcomes. It aligns with NATO Integrated Air and Missile Defence System (NATINAMDS)/IAMD so detection, identification, and engagements are coherent with Allied airspace control and civil aviation safety. It leverages NATO market instruments and framework buys to accelerate delivery while enforcing data and interface conformance across the Alliance.


Governance and safety

Airspace control must remain centralized: Allied doctrine provides the playbook for rules of engagement (ROE) handoffs, civil-military notifications, and cross-border information flows during incidents and exercises. European Union Aviation Safety Agency’s (EASA) focus on GNSS integrity and aviation safety should guide where and how non-kinetic effects are used to avoid unintended impacts on civil operations 2223. NCIA training pipelines and Joint Air Power Competence Centre (JAPCC) methodologies standardize operator skills and tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) across nations and environments, and across varied terrain.


How to field it fast

Start by deploying SAPIENT-compliant sensor clusters at priority sites and along threat corridors, federated into NATO air command and control (C2), and exercise them through NCIA’s Technology Interoperability Exercise (TIE) to validate interoperability and operator workflows under EW. Use NATO market surveys and framework contracts to scale sensors, then layer in non-kinetic options, attritable interceptors, and GNSS-integrity analytics as proficiency grows. Adopt a software-first cadence—versioned interfaces and model updates—so improvements roll out in locked, testable increments without breaking coalition interoperability.


Economics that scale

A sustainable wall pairs non-kinetic effects for scalable impact with low-cost interceptors and emerging lasers for leakers and high-consequence keep-out zones, guided by measured cost-per-kill and magazine depth. Recent large-scale interceptor procurements signal the shift toward affordable magazines, while directed-energy trials show promise and limits for base and point defense. European interest in operational lasers underscores the case for pennies-per-shot complements to traditional missiles rather than replacements.


Measures that matter

Commanders should track probability of detection and false alarm rates at sensor and fusion layers, ID confidence, and time to detect/decide/engage as the core operational dashboard. Acquisition should enforce SAPIENT conformance and versioned interface control documents, with TIE data packages and NCIA instrumentation used to benchmark performance and trigger AI model retraining thresholds. Policymakers should demand quarterly reports on cost-per-kill, availability, and operator workload to ensure the wall delivers sustained risk reduction rather than episodic capability spikes.


A coalition dividend

Because the wall rides on NATO standards and Allied doctrine, nations can contribute sensors, effectors, and trained crews where they are strongest, while preserving civil aviation safety through established procedures and GNSS integrity guidance. The same architecture protects energy nodes, ports, and bases on the eastern flank and scales to events and temporary deployments across Europe without bespoke engineering. Most importantly, it turns national stovepipes into a shared deterrent signal that hostile drones will be detected, misled, and defeated with speed and economy.


A call to action

The Alliance has the doctrine, standards, and market tools to stand up a drone wall now—by networking what exists, buying what is proven, and training together until detect-decide-defeat is second nature. Resilience is a choice backed by governance, incentives, and measurable milestones; waiting for perfect systems invites more incursions and higher costs, while acting now secures Europe’s most vulnerable infrastructure and communities.


Dr. David Mussington is a Fellow of the Institute for Critical Infrastructure Technology (ICIT) and Co-Chair of ICIT’s Center for FCEB Resilience. Additionally, he is a Professor of the Practice at the University of Maryland’s School of Public Policy. Prior to rejoining UMD in January of 2025, David served as the Executive Assistant Director for Infrastructure at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency, US Department of Homeland Security.


About ICIT

The Institute  for Critical Infrastructure Technology (ICIT) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, 501(c)3think tank with the mission of modernizing, securing, and making resilient critical infrastructure that provides for people’s foundational needs. ICIT takes no institutional positions on policy matters. Rather than advocate, ICIT is dedicated to being a resource for the organizations and communities that share our mission. By applying a people-centric lens to critical infrastructure research and decision making, our work ensures that modernization and security investments have a lasting, positive impact on society.

Learn more at www.icitech.org/.


ICIT CONTACTS:

 

Parham Eftekhari

Founder and Chairman

 

Cory Simpson

Chief Executive Officer


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