ScaleWolf founder warns of underground automatic drones as Lithuania’s next threat
ScaleWolf founder Edvinas Kerza warned that underground automatic drones could soon pose a new security threat to Lithuania and urged authorities to invest in detection, regulation and international cooperation.
Key facts
- ScaleWolf founder Edvinas Kerza warns underground autonomous drones could become Lithuania’s next security threat.
- Underground drones exploit miniaturisation and autonomy; they evade conventional aerial counter‑UAS tools in tunnels, sewers and cavities.
- Kerza urges investment in subterranean sensors, resilient comms, layered defeat options and updated policy across national and NATO networks.
2 minute read
Edvinas Kerza, founder of Lithuanian drone firm ScaleWolf, told The Baltic Times he expects “underground automatic drones” to become Lithuania’s next security threat. The warning reframes a familiar problem — proliferating unmanned systems — by moving it below ground. Kerza points to three technical trends that increase risk: smaller platforms, greater autonomy, and improved navigation that can exploit existing subterranean infrastructure such as drainage systems, tunnels and abandoned cavities.
Such underground drones could be used for covert surveillance of border areas, to smuggle contraband or to place or detonate devices in hard-to-reach locations. Detecting them is harder than spotting aerial UAS: GPS is degraded, line‑of‑sight sensors struggle, and radio communications can be blocked or relayed through mesh networks. Conventional counter‑UAS tools — radars, RF monitors and kinetic interceptors — are optimized for airspace, not enclosed or buried environments.
Kerza urged Lithuanian authorities, the defence industry and NATO partners to broaden threat assessments and fund targeted research. Priorities include subterranean sensing (seismic, acoustic, magnetic), resilient communications and navigation countermeasures, and layered defeat concepts tailored to confined spaces. He also highlighted regulatory and procurement gaps that privilege aerial C‑UAS capabilities while overlooking non‑traditional domains. For Europe, the message is practical: as drone technologies diffuse, security planners must adapt doctrine, standards and industrial support to address hybrid and domain‑crossing threats before they materialise.
Source: The Baltic Times
