HELSINKI, November 7. /TASS/. Finland has invited NATO to deploy a reconnaissance drone base on its territory to collect information along the border with Russia, the public broadcaster yle reported.

According to the broadcaster, Finland has offered NATO one of its bases for this purpose. The Finnish Air Force has four options and Pirkkala is being considered as the most likely location. As the newspaper Iltalehti notes, the base is expected to accommodate the RQ-4D UAV. Such drones can fly at an altitude of 18 km, and they are difficult to detect, according to information on the NATO website.

Iltalehti notes that due to the nature of the operations, the reconnaissance base needs strong military protection around it, both from attacks using conventional weapons and from electronic warfare. NATO is in the early stages of planning and there is no political agreement yet among all the countries, a decision is not expected before 2025, the yle report notes. The reconnaissance drones are currently based in Italy.