Europe Is ‘Not Ready’ for the Russian Threat - At Least It Now Has a Plan

The startling swarms of drones Russia and Ukraine are fielding against each other—an arms and technology race with lethal consequences—underscores how unprepared Europe is for modern warfare. That makes the twenty-seven European Union (EU) member states, particularly those neighboring Russia, vulnerable to a rapidly innovating and battle-tested Russian military.

Andrius Kubilius, the EU’s first-ever commissioner for defense and space, is tracking this escalating drone warfare with a sense of concern and urgency. On a visit to Washington last week, he shared with me what Europe is learning about modern warfare from Ukraine—and how the EU intends to respond to those lessons.

Stronger than in February 2022

“The success of the [Russian] drones in recent months,” write Charles Clover and Christopher Miller in the Financial Times, “demonstrates how cheap mass can overwhelm even sophisticated and layered air defences, and has shown Moscow’s ability to rapidly adapt fighting techniques to stretch Kyiv’s resources.”

What’s most worrisome is that Russia’s rapid advances are outpacing Ukraine’s ability to counter them. Russian forces are flying drones faster, increasing the size of the swarms, and flying the weapons at higher altitudes. That has put Russia’s drones out of range of the truck-mounted machine guns Ukraine had previously used so effectively.