Lithuania has streamlined its rules to make it easier to order the military to shoot down drones that violate its airspace, Defence Minister Dovile Sakaliene said Tuesday.
“Even though we live de jure in peacetime, our laws … were not adapted to current threats,” Sakaliene told parliament.
As of October 1, Sakaliene said she or an “authorised person” would now be able to order that a drone flying in restricted or closed airspace be downed.
The goal is “a mechanism that allows us to react instantly” with military means to any breaches of the country’s airspace, she said.
The changes come in response to two incidents in July, when drones of a model used by Russia in its bombardment of Ukraine breached Lithuanian airspace from Belarus. One of them was carrying explosives.
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