The security protections for EU Presidency
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
The Clare Byrne Show on Newstalk. With Aviva Insurance. We begin with a drone defence programme including helicopters and shotguns is set to be rolled out by the Irish Defence Forces to provide enhanced security during the six-month EU presidency hosted here by Ireland and beginning on the 1st of July. Let's get the details now around what we might see on the ground. I'm joined by crime and security correspondent with the Irish Times, Conor Gallagher. Conor, good morning.
Morning, Clare.
This is quite extraordinary what you're reporting today. Machine guns, shotguns and all sorts of training, some of it provided by the armed forces in Ukraine.
What drone defense measures are being implemented for the EU Presidency?
Talk us through it.
Yes, so as you know, Ireland assumes the presidency of the EU on the 1st of July. There is a huge concern about the potential disruption to events by drone incursions. And we've seen these drone incursions in various EU countries, including in Denmark during its hosting of the presidency when they shut down the airport. And we've obviously saw a similar incident in Dublin Bay last December. when Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky was visiting Ireland and drones were spotted in Dublin Bay by an Irish Naval Service crew. So all of that is really focused minds and is the reason why the Defence Forces are devising this anti-drone doctrine, which will obviously be for the presidency as well, but would also form a key part of Irish military operations at home and abroad going forward, especially in peacekeeping missions.
So we've hard kill solutions and soft kill solutions. Now, they sound very dramatic. Can you explain them to us?
That's right, yeah. So that's the, I suppose, technical terms, if you like. So a soft kill solution is jamming drones. So there's all sorts of technology you can get, which will jam the radio signal, which controls the drone and basically disable it or force it to land. Those systems are being installed at Casement Airdrome. That's where all the EU leaders are going to fly into for the meetings here during the presidency. That's the ideal solution. It's the safest solution. It preserves the evidence. You're not firing bullets into the air and you don't know where they'll land uh but it's you need more and it's been realized that you need more because some modern drones can be controlled by artificial intelligence and don't actually need to be controlled by the ground some others can be controlled by very long fiber optic wires and jamming or you know soft killing just doesn't work against them so you need to have what they call a hard kill solution as well as a backup and that's
what it sounds like, that's shooting them out of the sky using various types of weapons. And so they have been training troops in air gunnery. So that will literally be someone in a helicopter firing a door-mounted machine gun at low-flying drones. The PC-9 turboprop trainer aircraft are being fitted with specialised anti-drone weapons. Perhaps most dramatically, soldiers are being trained on the use of shotguns which you know were kind of a military anachronism uh before the war in ukraine they'd limited um use but they have proven themselves in ukraine as um an effective last-ditch resort weapon against drones it was described to me kind of very similar to clay pigeon shooting you load them up with birdshot which has a wide spread which makes it kind
Sorry, easier, it's not easy to shoot down drones if everything else fails.
And is that how they are being trained as they are in the UK, just doing some clay pigeon shooting?
Yeah, so other militaries are also waking up to this and are a bit ahead of us. And yeah, in the UK, even soldiers are being encouraged to take part. in clay pigeon shooting, because it's, it's pretty much exactly the same, um, skill set. But as I said, that that's very much a last resort. Um, if, if, you know, it comes to that situation where you're firing at a drone from a shotgun thing, a few other things have already gone wrong. The other thing they're, they're, they're focusing on is training Naval service, uh, members, uh, to shoot drones out of the sky.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:01–0:45
2
What drone defense measures are being implemented for the EU Presidency?
0:45–4:50
3
What concerns are there about drone incursions during the EU Presidency?
4:50–10:19
4
What is the difference between hard kill and soft kill solutions for drones?
10:19–10:34