NATO has been using fighter jets to stop drones. One ally says a new Ukraine-inspired anti-drone wall will handle them first.

NATO jets are taking down drones that enter alliance airspace, but alliance leaders say more cost-effective measures are needed. JOHN THYS/AFP via Getty Images Fighter jets have been NATO's costly answer to incoming drones. Latvia is building an automated anti-drone border defense to stop them with cheaper weapons. Its defense minister told Business Insider that jets will be the "secondary means" of stopping drones. Fighter jets armed with expensive air-to-air missiles have led the way in the fight to take down the cheap drones that breach NATO airspace, a costly dynamic officials say needs to change. NATO ally Latvia is building a Ukraine-inspired automated anti-drone wall along its entire eastern border with Russia. It is designed to make fighter jets a last line of defense, not the first, Latvian Defense Minister Raivis Melnis told Business Insider. The system is expected to be completed by the end of September.