NATO member countries intend to grant the alliance’s supreme commander greater leeway to shoot down drones ahead of the leaders’ summit, which will take place next month in Ankara.
Politico reports this, citing two NATO diplomats and one alliance representative.
According to the diplomats and the alliance representative, after months of negotiations, allies are expected to approve a new proposal ahead of the July 7–8 summit that will grant the NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe, US General Alexus Grynkewich, greater authority to counter drone threats.
Currently, NATO members are establishing rules regarding how and where specific national weapons systems may be deployed. Under the terms of the new proposal, Grynkewich will have greater freedom of action in redeploying resources within the alliance and setting combat readiness levels for military equipment without the need for formal approval, officials noted.
They also added that this proposal would formally incorporate NATO’s missile defense systems into fighter jet air patrol missions over Eastern Flank countries and beyond, reorienting them toward air defense tasks.
Some NATO allies have long complained that these so-called national reservations create a patchwork of different rules across the alliance and prevent Grynkewich from quickly addressing air threats.
“Nations are always looking to NATO when a drone enters their airspace,” the spokesperson added, but NATO also “needs nations to do their part” by lifting their restrictions.
According to the spokesperson, Grynkewich presented his proposals for increasing flexibility to the 32 ambassadors of member countries earlier this year.
As the Ukrainian News agency earlier reported, Politico previously claimed, citing sources, that NATO and European Union countries are discussing an urgent strengthening of defenses against drones on the Alliance’s eastern flank. This was prompted by increasingly frequent drone incidents near the borders with russia and Belarus.
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