How Britain should help Europe build its 'drone wall'

When Defence Secretary John Healey announced that Britain would help build a European ‘drone wall’, he was right to push the idea of a curtain of British-made interceptor drones to guard Nato’s eastern flank. Recent Russian incursions have shown that business as usual is no longer enough. Now, the challenging part begins: turning those buzzwords into a functioning defence system before the next crisis tests the alliance. The impetus is obvious.

In recent weeks, Europe has been prodded by a rash of incursions and ‘mystery drones’ over airports and military sites across the continent. Denmark and Sweden have both, in the past week, closed airspace in Copenhagen and Oslo, with the former even going as far as to temporarily ban civilian drones from flying in the city. This is hybrid warfare i