Скриншот трансляции
Poland has launched its first counter-drone cluster on the border with Belarus. This was announced at a press conference in Podlasie by Marcin Kierwiński, Minister of Interior and Administration.
He recalled that he had already visited the border before Christmas. At that time, together with Prime Minister Donald Tusk, he announced that the deployment of the system was beginning.
“We said that at the beginning of this year, here on the Polish-Belarusian border, on the Polish border, on Poland’s eastern border, the first system for detecting, recognizing and countering flying objects, including drones, would be installed.
We said that work in this area was nearing completion. We said that the first cluster, a test cluster to check the functionality of such a system, would be launched at the beginning of the year. And, as we have already said, such a system has been launched. Behind us stands a tower, one of about a dozen towers supporting this system. This is the first cluster, the first module that we have installed on our eastern border. However, our goal, of course, is that our entire eastern border, our entire maritime border, should be equipped with a similar system. This system consists, so to speak, of two elements: components of a radar system designed to detect aircraft and a radio-scanning system designed to clearly identify these objects so that they can subsequently be hit, shot down or intercepted,” he said.
According to Kierwiński, five such complexes should be launched in the coming months.
The minister used the commissioning of the cluster as an argument in the dispute between the government and President Karol Nawrocki over the European SAFE programme. Nawrocki is expected to sign a law on the implementation of the programme, under which Poland is to receive a large European loan to strengthen its defence capabilities. The opposition party Law and Justice, which supported Nawrocki in the elections, has criticised the European initiative, making a presidential veto highly possible. The government states that even in the event of a veto, Poland will not lose the SAFE funds intended for military needs, but legislative changes are required for them to be directed to services subordinate to Poland’s Ministry of Interior and Administration.