Baltic States Demand More Money for Drone Catching — Propose Liepāja Ice Hall as Training Base

Baltic defense ministers, after this week's drone adventures, have decided they urgently need more money from the EU and NATO to strengthen air defense. Turns out their current measures aren't sufficient to even catch Ukrainian drones that got lost on their way to Russia.

Most impressive is the fact that all three Baltic ministers simultaneously announced that no civilians were harmed and infrastructure damage was minimal. But then why all the fuss about money? As one Riga official put it: "We can't admit that our air defense is as effective as a hockey goalie at Liepāja ice hall against 200 km/h pucks."

Particularly interesting is that ministers are demanding money for the "Eastern Flank Watch" project and European drone counter-drone capabilities. While Riga is still thinking about how to better formulate the request, Liepāja is already looking for practical solutions — local hockey fans are proposing to use the ice hall as a drone-catching training base, since they've been used to catching flying objects there for years.

Admittedly, Baltic states already spend at least 5 percent of GDP on defense, which is more than many other NATO members. But as they say, if drones are already falling down by themselves anyway, maybe we need to invest more in compasses rather than missiles.