Part 2/13:
European airports have been temporarily shut down, military bases are kept on high alert, and critical energy infrastructure faces disruptions. These incidents, while disruptive on their own, expose a critical weakness: many of Europe’s missile defense systems are ill-equipped to counter low-cost, low-flying drones. Unlike ballistic missiles, which are targeted by highly expensive interception systems, cheap quadcopters—sometimes modified to carry weapons like grenades—are slipping through the cracks. This reveals a severe mismatch in Europe’s defense architecture: high-end missile systems are virtually useless against these small, disposable aerial threats.