Estonia weighs buying light jet aircraft to shoot down Russian jet-powered drones

VIENNA — Estonia’s new defense minister said his country should consider buying light jet aircraft to shoot down Russia’s faster, jet-powered attack drones.

Martin Herem, a retired general who took office Sept. 16, floated the idea in interviews after meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv. He told The Baltic Sentinel and the daily Postimees that Estonia should study the option, saying air-to-air weapons are the most effective counter to the drones.

He gave no aircraft type, budget or timeline.

Herem has not committed to buying anything. He told The Baltic Sentinel he is also looking at computer-controlled cannons, heavy machine guns and fast, jet-powered interceptor drones. He noted that Estonia already has pilots, air-control expertise and L-39 trainers.

The two L-39 Albatros trainers Estonia uses are leased, according to the Estonian military’s website . Their civilian status and lease terms would complicate any move to arm them, the former head of Estonia’s air force said back in April .

The proposal responds to a threat that is growing fast. Yuriy Ihnat, a Ukrainian air force spokesman, said Ukraine intercepted about 40% of jet-powered drones in July and 60% in August, according to Hromadske . In the same period, the number of jet-powered drones fired at Ukraine increased from a few hundred to several thousands a month. Ukraine’s defense ministry puts their speed at more than 400 kilometers per hour.

None of the three Baltic states have their own fighter fleet. NATO allies police their skies on rotation, and allied jets have shot down drones over Latvia in June and over Lithuania on Sept. 15. Estonia’s air-policing rotation currently includes Turkish F-16s at Ämari. Spanish F-18s were scheduled to depart after their rotation in “early October,” according to the Estonian military .

Neither Latvia nor Lithuania have floated buying jet aircraft of their own. Both are putting money into cheaper counter-drone layers instead, and Latvia is considering the Embraer’s A-29 Super Tucano, a light turboprop fighter aircraft, for air-defense missions.

Lithuania’s government on Sept. 2 authorized the defense ministry to skip standard procurement rules to buy trial batches of interceptor drones and radars. Defense Minister Robertas Kaunas said Vilnius would favor systems already tested in Ukraine. Lithuania is also testing Ukraine’s SkyFortress acoustic detection system.

Latvia is building what State Secretary Airis Rikveilis called a “wall of drones” on its eastern border. It will combine radars, interceptor drones and command equipment.

NATO planners have repeatedly said that using heavy fighters against small drones is disproportionately expensive. Interceptor drones and ground-based air defenses often cost substantially less to procure and to operate.

Linus Höller is Defense News' Europe correspondent and OSINT investigator. He reports on the arms deals, sanctions, and geopolitics shaping Europe and the world. He holds master’s degrees in WMD nonproliferation, terrorism studies, and international relations, and works in four languages: English, German, Russian, and Spanish.

维也纳——爱沙尼亚新任国防部长表示，爱沙尼亚应该考虑购买轻型喷气式飞机，以击落俄罗斯速度更快、动力更强的喷气式攻击无人机。

9月16日就任的退役将军马丁·赫雷姆在基辅会见乌克兰总统泽连斯基后接受采访时提出了这一想法。他告诉《波罗的海哨兵报》和《邮报》，爱沙尼亚应该研究这一选项，并表示空对空武器是应对无人机最有效的手段。

他没有透露飞机型号、预算或时间表。

赫雷姆尚未承诺购买任何装备。他告诉《波罗的海哨兵报》，他还在考虑购买电脑控制的火炮、重机枪和高速喷气式拦截无人机。他指出，爱沙尼亚已经拥有飞行员、空中管制技术以及L-39教练机。

据爱沙尼亚军方网站显示，爱沙尼亚使用的两架L-39信天翁教练机均为租赁所得。爱沙尼亚空军前司令早在今年4月就曾表示，鉴于其民用性质和租赁条款，任何为其配备武器的举措都将变得复杂。

该提议旨在应对日益增长的威胁。据乌克兰通讯社Hromadske报道，乌克兰空军发言人尤里·伊格纳特表示，乌克兰7月份拦截了约40%的喷气式无人机，8月份拦截率达到60%。同期，袭击乌克兰的喷气式无人机数量从每月数百架增加到数千架。乌克兰国防部称，这些无人机的速度超过每小时400公里。

波罗的海三国均无自己的战斗机部队。北约盟国轮流负责其领空巡逻，盟军战机曾在6月于拉脱维亚上空击落无人机，并于9月15日在立陶宛上空击落无人机。目前，爱沙尼亚的空中巡逻轮换部署包括驻扎在阿马里空军基地的土耳其F-16战机。据爱沙尼亚军方称，西班牙F-18战机原计划于“10月初”完成轮换部署后离开。

拉脱维亚和立陶宛都没有提出购买喷气式飞机的计划。两国都将资金投入到成本更低的无人机反制体系中，拉脱维亚还在考虑采购巴西航空工业公司的A-29“超级巨嘴鸟”轻型涡轮螺旋桨战斗机用于防空任务。

9月2日，立陶宛政府授权国防部绕过标准采购程序，采购一批拦截无人机和雷达进行试验。国防部长罗伯塔斯·考纳斯表示，维尔纽斯方面将优先选择已经在乌克兰进行过测试的系统。立陶宛目前也在测试乌克兰的“天空堡垒”（SkyFortress）声学探测系统。

拉脱维亚正在其东部边境建设国务秘书艾里斯·里克韦利斯所称的“无人机墙”。该墙将结合雷达、拦截无人机和指挥设备。

北约规划人员多次表示，使用重型战斗机对抗小型无人机成本过高。拦截无人机和地面防空系统的采购和运行成本通常要低得多。

林努斯·霍勒是《防务新闻》的欧洲记者和开源情报调查员。他报道影响欧洲乃至全球的军火交易、制裁和地缘政治。他拥有大规模杀伤性武器不扩散、恐怖主义研究和国际关系三个硕士学位，并精通英语、德语、俄语和西班牙语四种语言。