‘Drones are taking Putin’s grey zone war into the heart of Europe’s civilian airspace’

The head of a global firm that provides sophisticated drone defenses has said that he does not know of a fully-protected civilian airport.

Oleg Vornik, of DroneShield, warned that counter-measures are lacking at a time of Russian probing and sabotage across the UK and Europe.

The chief executive spoke at the end of a week when uncrewed aerial systems (UAS) caused Denmark’s busiest airport to close and

Vornik told Metro the activity is most likely part of Russia’s ‘grey zone’ in the UK and Europe, also including freight parcel bombs, spy rings and the sabotage of deep-sea cables. 

His comments are significant as DroneShield has systems in Poland next to the border with Ukraine, which pick up data about UAS launched by Vladimir Putin’s forces.

‘By the nature of drone technology, these flights are anonymous,’ Vornik said. ‘If you do not possess counter-measures that can track the path of the drone and where it likely came from, it is very difficult to infer who is behind these drones. 

Suspicion falls on Putin’s ‘grey zone’

‘If you think about the current environment, there is a lot of state-based actor activity combining a lot of different elements.

‘For example, satellite jamming in the Nordics and undersea cable dredging and so on. It’s logical to assume these events are connected. 

‘My sense is that what we are seeing is poking around to find out where the soft areas are and what is protected and understanding what the response is, similar to flying planes into NATO airspace.

‘The state actor also wants to spread fear and confusion.’ 

The Australia-based company, which has partners in the UK and has been involved in trials at airports, provides advanced counter-measures which include the ability to pinpoint an operator’s location.  

‘To my knowledge, there is no civilian airport in the world that has a fully functioning counter-drone system, which is shocking,’ Vornik said.  

‘It is my hope that airports and regulators will start taking it more seriously and not wait until something bad happens above a nuisance and airport shut downs. Drones being ingested into plane engines or creating cracks in windshields doesn’t need to happen.’  

The latest incidents in Europe follow the UAS activity detected on successive nights last November in and around RAF bases in the UK where the US Air Force has a presence.  

As reported by Metro earlier this week, the US has cited ‘unusual circumstances’ in delaying a response to a request for information about the Russia-linked incidents, which impacted the military significant Lakenheath base in Suffolk.  

On Monday, Copenhagen Airport was forced to shut with planes grounded and thousands of journeys disrupted in activity attributed to a ‘capable actor’ by the city’s police.  

‘Act now before it’s too late’

Insp Jens Jespersen said the operators wanted to ‘show off’ rather than cause harm, as they had ‘the capabilities, the will and the tools’ to do so. 

Vornik wants multi-layered defenses to become standard at civilian airports but ruled out ‘kinetic’ measures, saying they would risk collateral damage and in any case be ineffective. 

‘There’s two ways this can change,’ he said.

‘One is a high-profile incident, and I think sooner or later there will be loss of human life, and the law and regulations will change.  

‘The other is regulators driving change, like saying you should have a fire alarm system, you should have a drone detection and mitigation system on a mandatory basis as well.’  

Is Russia using drone pilots for hire?

Peter Layton, a military aviation analyst at the Griffith Asia Institute and former Royal Australian Air Force officer, told Metro that the drone activity could be a result of Russia using low-ranking criminals ‘to undertake sabotage actions across Europe’.

The tactic would be similar to other forms of grey zone activity such as arson attacks and spying.  

‘The issue has not arisen before as earlier drone intrusions were rare and mostly unintentional involving small, hobbyist drones,’ Layton said.  

‘Technology has now made these drones larger and more capable and readily available at low cost. Russia – and other threat actors – are now able to use local actors to create larger problems.

‘The technical ability to undertake grey zone attacks is now widespread across Europe and many countries. It just needs a malevolent state to activate, fund and coordinate the activities.’ 

One scenario would involve Russia using other nationals to operate the drones, a modus operandi it deployed with the Bulgarian spy ring dismantled in the UK in 2023.

‘It could be Russia is paying some Danish or nearby criminal group to do similar in this instance,’ Layton said.

‘This would allow Russia to disown the actions. 

‘It is notable that Russia does not seem to be mounting a disinformation campaign about this.  

‘For example, one was quickly mounted about the Russian drones that flew into Poland. 

‘The drones could be launched from on shore or from passing ships.  

‘It does seem though that the drones are recovered by the group using them; none have been found abandoned.

‘Such drones can be hard to defeat in that using hard kill weapons – such as guns – creates safety hazards for the wider community.  

‘The preferred option is to jam them using electronic warfare techniques; these would mean the drone either automatically returned to its launch point or landed.’ 

EU states and Ukraine held talks today on a ‘drone wall’ system which would protect the bloc’s eastern flank, and Layton believes a multi-national approach is a logical next step.

‘The Danish event is unusual in being geographically widespread, carefully timed and clearly coordinated,’ he said.

‘This will be the new normal unless steps can be taken to convince the malevolent state to desist and this seems unlikely.  

‘This means that the internal security agencies of European countries will need to start to focus on countering such activities on both a national and cross-border basis.  

‘The next step will be such drone intrusions being launched from one country into another hoping to create confusion and exploit border policing zone boundaries.’   

In 2019, Boris Johnson’s government set out a ‘full spectrum’ approach under a Counter-Unmanned Aircraft Strategy tackling the criminal misuse of drones, including in relation to airport security.

A Civil Aviation Authority spokesperson said: ‘It is illegal to fly drones within an airport’s flight restriction zone without permission and anyone breaking the rules and endangering aircraft can face severe penalties including imprisonment.

‘Anyone operating a drone must do so responsibly and observe all relevant rules and regulations. The rules for flying drones are designed to keep all airspace users safe.’  

Do you have a story you would like to share? Contact josh.layton@usnewsrank.com

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