RSPP President Calls for Unified Industrial Protection Standards Against Drone Attacks

MOSCOW, September 24. /TASS/. Unified approaches are needed to protect industrial facilities from drone and missile attacks, with requirements continuously adjusted to changes in warfare technologies, President of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP) Alexander Shokhin told reporters.

"Everything is changing very rapidly. At the beginning of this year, no one imagined that attacks could be carried out on such a massive scale. Protective netting and some form of kinetic counter-drone systems were considered a sufficient level of protection. That could have served as a standard, but now, to put it mildly, it is already yesterday’s approach, both literally and figuratively. So, what is needed is a mechanism such as Manturov’s subcommission (the subcommission on ensuring the uninterrupted operation of individual sectors of the economy, chaired by Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov - TASS), which would continuously adjust these requirements," Shokhin said.

According to him, developing unified approaches to protection against aerial attacks is also necessary for implementing the presidential decree on measures to ensure the security of critical infrastructure facilities, which provides for the possibility of placing the property of companies that have failed to adequately protect critical infrastructure facilities from drone attacks under temporary administration.

"Because, again, when it comes to placing assets under external administration, it is unclear what constitutes adequate protection and what constitutes timely restoration of a facility. This essentially has to be handled on a case-by-case basis as well; there can be no fixed criteria here. The main thing is to prevent the lack of transparency from being abused," Shokhin said.

Companies’ spending on protection

According to Shokhin, businesses’ spending on financing air defense systems and installing protective structures will increase. "Protecting facilities does not provide a 100% guarantee that there will be no damage in the future. The situation is constantly changing in terms of technology and the use of artificial intelligence. In some areas we are ahead, while in others we have to catch up. So, spending will probably continue to rise. But it is still lower than the potential losses and damage. Therefore, even without being pushed, businesses are naturally interested in putting effective protection in place," Shokhin said.