X<\/a>, the politician said: \u201cIs there still much work to be done? Yes. But the Latvian army, together with its allies, is ready today to defend Latvia.\u201d<\/p>\nLatvian Member of the European Parliament M\u0101rti\u0146\u0161 Sta\u0137is said the pre-election period played a significant role in Spr\u016bds’ resignation. The prime minister belongs to the centre-right Unity political party, while the former defence minister belongs to the Progressives on the left.<\/p>\n
However, Sta\u0137is, a Greens MEP who sits on the EP’s Security and Defence Committee, admits rebuilding public trust in Latvia\u2019s crisis response capabilities is crucial \u2013 and sits at the core of national security. \u201cUkrainian drones aimed at legitimate military targets inside Russian territory were redirected toward Latvia as a result of Russian actions,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat matters now is that work on strengthening Latvia\u2019s defence capabilities continues without interruption.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/6dc124afc110882c5cfc10ae137bcad4.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n
A vintage biplane paints the colors of the Latvian flag across the sky during a military parade on Latvian Independence Day, in Riga, 18 November, 2022. – AP Photo <\/p>\n
A political reckoning<\/p>\n
Latvia\u2019s Ministry of Defence told Euronews that a formal inquiry has been ordered into the internal response of the drone incident, particularly regarding what happened with the cell broadcast system. National Armed Forces have also been ordered to \u201cimmediately\u201d revise border airspace defence plans and raise operational readiness.<\/p>\n
Defence and reform expert Glen Grant \u2013 former British Army Lieutenant Colonel, who also worked as a defence attach\u00e9 in Latvia \u2013 said the country\u2019s air defence failures stem from a confluence of issues.<\/p>\n
The 64,000-square-metre sized country has geographical limitations, namely its flat terrain. \u201cOrdinary radars that are on the ground are almost limited to line of sight and that means that anything that’s low, you can’t see until the last minute,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Latvia\u2019s crisis management system has been neglected, Grant said. \u201cIt has been developed extremely slowly, because people haven’t taken it seriously in the last few years,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are lots of elements \u2013 like the technology system, the warning system and sirens \u2013that are simply not up to the standard that they need to be,” Grant added.<\/p>\n
The larger issue, however, is that Riga has given much of its air defence capabilities to Ukraine after Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022. The country has provided Kyiv much of its hand-held equipment traditionally used at battalion and brigade level to spot drones.<\/p>\n
For Grant, \u201cLatvia has limited radars, but if drones come in at low levels, then they are under the radars.”<\/p>\n
Latvia\u2019s contribution, particularly of defence capabilities, has left \u201cthe country bereft\u201d, Grant said.<\/p>\n
NATO\u2019s next move<\/p>\n
Latvia\u2019s Minister of Foreign Affairs Baiba Bra\u017ee visited NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) headquarters in Brussels on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
According to a read-out, she discussed with NATO secretary-general Mark Rutte the matter of strengthening the country\u2019s air defences \u2013 which includes the integration of modern technologies \u2013 and closer coordination among allies.<\/p>\n
Latvia is in the process of finalising a \u20ac3.49 billion defence loan from the European Union (EU) as part of the Security Action for Europe (SAFE) scheme.<\/p>\n
This mechanism is part of the EU\u2019s broader push to rearm itself amid warnings from several European intelligence agencies that Russia could threaten the continent by 2030.<\/p>\n
While the envelope of money has not been finalised by Riga \u2013 with cabinet approval still pending \u2013 the loan is expected to beef up air defences through the acquisition of drones, guided munitions and anti-drone hardware, Latvia\u2019s Ministry of Defence said.<\/p>\n
![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/17159b853de13bca32ecc5f60e7efda9.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n
An employee of the drone manufacturer Atlas Aerospace Dmitry Belus tests a drone in the capital Riga, Latvia, 1 February, 2023. – Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. <\/p>\n
A key component of the package is the purchase of the \u201cBlaze\u201d interceptor drones, designed to rapidly neutralise aerial threats.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy investing in such cutting-edge technology, Latvia is significantly enhancing its ability to detect and repel drone incursions in the future,\u201d a defence ministry spokesperson told Euronews.<\/p>\n
At the end of 2025 Latvia committed to spending 5% of its gross domestic product on defence, as per NATO guidelines.<\/p>\n
Most of the funding will go towards a building on a layered air defence system, as well as the acquisition of coastal defence missiles. Procurement of infantry fighting vehicles as well as artillery, ammunition and equipment is also planned.<\/p>\n
Former NATO Deputy Director for Defence and Security Cooperation Glenda Niehus said Latvia has made progress bolstering defences and actively integrating civilians into the process.<\/p>\n
Despite the spend, there are major problems with fragmented markets and layers of red tape in the Baltics, as well as the rest of Europe.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are often innovating, we are then regulating, but we are not really deploying,\u201d Niehus said.<\/p>\n
\u201cRepresentatives from industry have told me that three fourths of their energy go goes into dealing with regulatory issues when using drones,” she said.<\/p>\n
Europe\u2019s defence bottleneck<\/p>\n
The EU\u2019s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said after a high-level meeting attended by defence ministers on Tuesday that she shared the \u201cfrustration\u201d among Europe\u2019s defence industry regarding the glacial pace of procurement and production.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe industry is saying you have different rules everywhere, and it’s hard to operate,\u201d Kallas said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlso the standards. Every member state is tweaking things a bit, so everybody has different orders. You can’t really produce in line like this.\u201d<\/p>\n
The European Commission has presented a defence package aiming to simplify the rules around acquisition and production, with debates between officials from the European Parliament and European Council scheduled for 18 and 19 May.<\/p>\n
Whether the measures will come quickly enough remains unclear.<\/p>\n
\u201cRussia is taking stock of this,\u201d Niehus said. \u201cThey are doing whatever they can do to slow us down and to divide us and derail us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Riga is scrambling to restore public trust and secure its fragile airspace. On Thursday last week, several drones…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":82218,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[91],"tags":[43855,43852,28548,43854,169,43851,43853,168],"class_list":{"0":"post-82217","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-riga","8":"tag-defence-attache","9":"tag-defence-capabilities","10":"tag-defence-ministry","11":"tag-glen-grant","12":"tag-latvia","13":"tag-latvian-defence-ministry","14":"tag-latvian-flag","15":"tag-riga"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/116571942933895321","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82217\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}