The war in Ukraine has devoured Russia’s human and material resources at a devastating rhythm: more than 250,000 soldiers dead and about one million of total casualties, a cost higher to all its wars since 1945. This fact has conditioned Moscow, but has also enhanced a war that has turned the airspace of the rest of Europe into chaos: The hybrid war.
The bleeding and the turn. Forbes counted This week that, despite that human sacrifice, Moscow has barely expanded 12% The territory under its control, at the price of losing ten men for each square mile conquered. Thus, unable to sustain the conventional war, the Kremlin has replaced the number of troops by the Drones deploymentcapable of launching more than a thousand projectiles and responsible for Up to 70% of the Ukrainian casualties.
The bet is so clear that it is expected to form more drone operators What infantry soldiers From here to 2030. With this transition, Moscow has converted the swarm of unmanned aircraft into the central tool of a hybrid strategy that not only points to Ukraine, but now Also to all of Europe.
Civil aviation, the first front. The European airports They have been the first to feel the effects of this war in the shadow. Drone raids forced the Temporary airport closure In Copenhagen and Oslo, while a ransomware attack paralyzed billing systems in London-Heathrow, Berlin and Brussels. What were previously isolated incidents has become a coordinated series of interruptions that show to what extent civil aviation, highly interconnected, is vulnerable to hybrid sabotage that combines low cost devices with cyber attacks.
The experts They point That these episodes seek to measure the European reaction capacity, and warn that the cost of modernizing antidron systems (radars, inhibitors, lasers) is so high that many airports are not prepared to assume it immediately. The result: hundreds of delayed or canceled flights and an unprecedented exhibition of the weaknesses of an essential sector.
Denmark as an epicenter. In just one week, Denmark has undergone a Succession of incursions with drones on key airports such as Aalborg or Billund and on military bases where their f-16 and F-35 fighters operate. Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulen, described These operations as a hybrid attack executed by a “professional actor” and acknowledged that they could lead to activate Article 4 of NATO for the first time in the history of the country.
Prime Minister, Mette Frederiksen, He described Copenhagen’s closure as the most serious attack suffered by Danish critical infrastructure. The government even studies legal changes to authorize civil operators of strategic facilities to demolish drones in case of threat. In parallel, political pressure has led to Call of meetings Joints in the EU to discuss the creation of a “drone wall” on the eastern borders of the continent.
Europe and a challenge. The incidents In Poland, Romania, Estonia and Denmark have uncovered a major problem: Europe’s inability to face Cheap threats and massive like drones. The systems designed to intercept fighters or ballistic missiles are revealed ineffective against swarms of small low -cost devices, which go unnoticed to the radars or saturate the defenses.
The magnitude of the Intrusion in Poland and airspace violations In Estonia They have shown that the gap is real. General stones They warn That what they need are not very expensive and scarce systems, but scalable defenses, cheap and mass produced: sensors, electronic war tools, small interceptors and short -range missiles. The proposal of A “Drones Wall” that covers borders with Russia, Belarus and Ukraine reflects urgency, but also the complexity of protecting against a threat in constant evolution.
The conflict at home. The truth is that, for a long time, Europe contemplated the invasion of Ukraine from a distance, with the feeling that the war was fought in a foreign scenario. Today that perception It has vanishedat least in part: The hybrid war It has already closed airports In Denmarkparalyzed systems in Berlin, Brussels and London, and put at risk the safety of commercial flights.
Thus, the front has moved to the tracks, to the navigation systems and the digital networks that support the daily life of millions of Europeans. If you want also, Russia has made the war cease to be a distant echo to become A tangible reality In the heavens and in the infrastructure of the continent, forcing NATO and the EU to rethink its defense in a new and most disconcerting terrain.
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