BRUSSELS — NATO countries want to give the alliance’s top military commander more leeway to shoot down drones by next month’s leaders’ summit in Ankara, according to two NATO diplomats and one alliance official.
NATO countries have grappled with a growing number of aerial threats, among them swarms of drones entering Poland and Romania, airspace violations in Estonia, and suspicious drones over Latvia — incidents that have caused damage and injuries, and roiled the politics of Eastern Flank countries.
After months of negotiation, allies are expected to approve a new proposal by the time of the July 7-8 summit, which would give NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe, U.S. Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, more muscle to address these threats, the diplomats and official said.
At present, NATO members dictate rules of how and where specific national weapons can be used. Under the terms of the new proposal, Grynkewich would have greater flexibility in shifting assets across the alliance and setting alert readiness levels of military kit without seeking formal approval, the officials said.
The proposal would also formally fold NATO’s ballistic air defense systems into its fighter jet air policing missions across Eastern Flank countries and beyond, they added, shifting them to air defense missions.
Some NATO allies have long complained that these so-called national caveats create a patchwork of different rules across the alliance and hinder Grynkewich’s ability to swiftly eliminate aerial threats.
Countries have debated lifting these constraints amid the growing drone incursions since at least October, and the launch of Iranian ballistic missiles toward Turkey earlier this year injected further urgency into the discussion in favor of adopting an alliance-wide approach, the NATO official said.
“Nations are always looking to NATO when a drone enters their airspace,” the official added, but NATO also “needs nations to do their part” by dropping their restrictions.
According to the official, Grynkewich presented his proposals for enhancing flexibility to the country’s 32 ambassadors earlier this year.