RIGA, Oct 7 (LETA) - At least two National Guard battalions in Latvia's border areas should be transformed into full-time units to effectively protect the country's eastern border, Janis Garisons, a co-founder of Civilian Resilience Nordic (CiReN) and former state secretary of the  Defense Ministry, says in a Facebook post. 

In his post, Garisons revisits the incident where a Russian drone crashed in the Rezekne region this past September. He notes that in meetings with various people, especially outside Riga, it had become apparent that this incident has significantly undermined public confidence in the National Armed Forces (NAF) and NATO in general.

Garisons believes that rapid response units should be established in Latgale, which in case of similar incidents would be able to move quickly and tackle a drone in a safe area. LETA reported last week that mobile Air Force battle groups armed with air defense missiles have been deployed in Latgale.

At the same time, Garisons believes that besides the RBS-70 anti-aircraft weapons, much more mobile weapons should also be acquired, such as shoulder-launched Stingers or Polish Pjorn man-portable anti-aircraft missiles. He also believes that larger caliber machine guns should be deployed on wheeled platforms, which would be able to get to the right spot quickly and meet the intruder.

At the same time, the biggest challenge to building an effective system is personnel, Garisons says. Investing in equipment alone is not enough, he stresses, because the border needs full-time units and soldiers to be on call and respond 24/7. "In this case, the National Guard and existing personnel will not be enough," Garisons believes.

Looking at the future threat as a whole, he admits that border protection will be the most important task. To increase effectiveness, Garisons suggests considering tasking the NAF with the protection of Latvia's eastern border.

To ensure this, he believes that at least two battalions of National Guard, including reinforced air defense elements, should be converted into full-time units. "And this can only be done by accelerating the increase in the number of recruits to the national defense service," Garisons says.

To ensure effective investments in border defenses and fortifications, at least one full-time engineer battalion capable of rapidly deploying and maintaining all planned anti-mobility structures should be stationed at the border, Garisons added.

"Otherwise, we can end up like the Russians in the Kursk region who had put up dragon's teeth, but nobody defended them, and they also forgot to lay mines," the defense expert warns.

As regards the Russian drone incident, Garisons feels that Latvia already has sufficient capabilities to deal with such threats. At the same time, this case should be used to enhance them.

As reported, on September 7, an explosives-laden Russian drone flew into Latvia from Belarus and crashed in the Gaigalava parish of Rezekne municipality. The National Armed Forces monitored the situation, but no decision was taken either to shoot down the drone or to scramble the NATO fighters on duty in Latvia. When the drone went down, the warhead that had not exploded was deactivated.