The Government’s reticence to confirm that unauthorised drones were launched near the flight path of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s aircraft as it approached Dublin last week is understandable but at the same time speaks to a far bigger and systemic problem.
It was appropriate for the Government to wait until they had solid intelligence about what happened and whether it was a serious and intentional attempt to disrupt Zelenskiy’s flight. That would now appear to be the case, with Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan speaking of a “co-ordinated threat” from unspecified actors.
The bigger issue is that it took a week from the first sighting of the drones by the crew of the Naval Service’s LÉ William Butler Yeats to reach this conclusion. It is further evidence – if any was needed – of the yawning gap between the capabilities of the Defence Forces and the threats now presented to the security of the State.
Drones have rapidly become integral to modern warfare yet the Defence Forces remain without the basic tools needed to combat them. They have no primary radar to detect such weapons, although one is being purchased.
RM Block
Naval vessels such as the LÉ William Butler Yeats do not have air search radar, electronic jamming equipment or other drone counter measures. All the crew of the vessel had at their disposal were the ship’s guns, the use of which could have posed a threat to civilian airliners. The command and control structures of the Defence Forces – there is no single joint command over the Navy and Air Corps – may have further hampered any response.
The immediate task facing the Government is to rectify as many of these deficits as possible ahead of Ireland’s assumption of the EU presidency next July, with several EU summits planned along with numerous ministerial meetings.
Some additional equipment has been purchased with this in mind but is unlikely to close gaps such as the one exposed last week. It seems inevitable that Ireland will have to seek assistance from its EU partners and possibly the UK. It is an embarrassing turn of events but also unavoidable.
Beyond that, the wider issue that must be addressed is the role of the Defence Forces in a world that has changed significantly, making security and defence much higher priorities. The ability to patrol and control the State’s own skies and seas would seem to be non-negotiable, yet the measures needed to facilitate this in terms of organisation, people and equipment are not in place or even fully agreed upon.
Behind all this confusion lies the the lack of clarity and consensus as to what Irish military neutrality means in this new dispensation. It cannot mean leaving the country defenceless.
