Latvian officer: no guarantee of full defense against a mass drone attack

Jānis Slaidiņš, a Major in Latvia's National Armed Forces and an officer at the National Guard staff, discussed on TV24's program on the war in Ukraine how prepared Latvia would be for a scenario in which 20, 30 or more Russian drones entered its airspace at once.

Slaidiņš said such a mass incursion would be a serious test for the country's air defense. In his view, a massive drone strike would certainly not be an easy situation, but the National Armed Forces, together with allies, would do everything possible to reduce the impact of such an attack.

No country can guarantee full protection

A key question is whether air defense systems could stop every single attacking drone. Slaidiņš explained that no country in the world can provide 100% effective air defense. Latvia, he said, should not assume that a mass attack would result in the destruction of every drone — the larger the scale of an attack, the harder the task becomes for defense forces.

The officer also pointed to changes in the technology used by the adversary, noting that Russia has increasingly been using jet-powered drones in recent attacks. This means defenders must account not only for the number of incoming drones but also for their speed and technical characteristics.

Attacks are carefully planned

Slaidiņš noted that Latvia cannot be directly compared to Ukraine, where drone attacks occur on a much larger scale. Still, Ukraine's experience shows that a mass drone attack is not simply a matter of launching a large number of unmanned aircraft at once. According to him, the adversary thoroughly studies how and where air defense is deployed before an attack, in order to maximize the effectiveness of the strike and avoid countermeasures. He said dedicated personnel work specifically on ensuring each such drone strike is as effective as possible.