NATO countries should decide for themselves whether or not to shoot down Russian missiles and drones over their territory -#NATOSecretaryGeneral #MarkRutte. If doing so, NATO countries could protect themselves from russian threats to their #security.

6 comments

1. This is the first step towards normalizing nato air patrols over ukraine–initially unarmed reconnaissance aircraft. This is a good thing.

2. I’m sure they are deciding for themselves… but it’s not as simple as it’s being made out. These incursions tend to be very brief, mostly as a means of shortening a flight path, and getting them during that small window when they’re over the wrong airspace would mean redeployment of assets, just for starters.

   That’s to say nothing of the expense. Consider that NATO’s favorite SAM is the Patriot. The things are quite pricey, and they’re one of the tightest weapons supply chains on the planet. Production is limited, and everything being made is already allocated to existing orders. Use one, and you’re waiting years to replace it.

   Under these circumstances, NATO nations using up missiles over ninety second airspace incursions is supremely unlikely. The only way it would be feasible is if the United States agreed to backstop missile replacement, which isn’t going to happen.

3. To me it’s sad and hilarious at the same time, that NATO often scramble Russian jets that are close to NATO borders but do nothing with drones and missiles INSIDE NATO borders. Go figure.

4. I remember Turkey shooting down a Russian jet only 2 km inside their airspace in 2015.

   Nothing is going to happen even if NATO shot down drones/missiles over western Ukraine. Russia would just have to accept that their strike possibilities in western Ukraine would be much lower.

   One could hope NATO could decided something like this at the next Ramstein meetings. An air defense zone that should be at least so far east as to include the Rivne and Khmelnytskyi nuclear power plants.

   I feel that Russia has plans to take out power infrastructure near these reactors during the winter. One could hope military help for Ukraine could be ahead for once and not lag a year or two behind as it currently is.

5. Russian Spy Drones reguarly fly across borders as it is. Shooting a spy drone down is hardly an act of war – it’s sending the spy drone that is the act of war.

6. This is a good move for NATO countries if they decide to do this. They have every right to express their sovereignty in their own airspace, and it’s extremely important that Russia doesn’t grow used to violating other nations’ borders.

   This will also be beneficial for the nations that choose to do this, as they will gain actual experience dealing with these threats, and as the reality of the complexities behind air defense become apparent, develop more effective solutions that could be employed in a future conflict. Demand for more air defense production, as those assets are being used, will incentivise defense contractors and governments to make investments that will greatly benefit us in the future.

   It’s both important that Russia’s violation of other nation’s sovereignty via airspace incursions is stopped, and our Air Defenses be tested and improved in a scenario where we are relatively safe to experiment. The cost of not doing this could be that Russia is emboldened to test NATO further with other incursions into our borders, and not being prepared for the complexities of modern Air Defense(which most nations today have little to no real experience dealing with).