Mysterious drone flights in NATO airspace cause alarm
BERLIN—Mysterious drone flights over the airspace of European Union member countries in recent weeks have alarmed the public and elected officials.
Intrusions into Nato’s airspace, some of them blamed on Russia, reached an unprecedented scale last month. Some European officials described the incidents as Moscow testing Nato’s response, which raised questions about how prepared the alliance is against Russia.
On Sept. 10, a swarm of Russian drones flew into Poland’s airspace, forcing Nato aircraft to scramble to intercept them and shoot down some of the devices. It was the first direct encounter between Nato and Moscow since Russia launched its all-out war on Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.
Days later, Nato jets escorted three Russian warplanes out of Estonia’s airspace.
Since then, flyovers have occurred near airports, military installations and critical infrastructure, among other locations, elsewhere on the continent and prompted European defense ministers to agree to develop a “drone wall” along their borders to better detect, track and intercept drones violating Europe’s airspace.
Russia blamed
Russia has been blamed for some of them, but denies that anything was done on purpose or that it played a role. European authorities haven’t released much detail about the drone intrusions, with some not acknowledging the overflights publicly until days later.
Other times, authorities were unable to confirm a report of a sighting. At one point, Danish authorities were flooded with 500 tips of sightings over 24 hours—some of which turned out to be just stars in the sky.
Countries are scrambling to figure out how to respond in the moment, including weighing whether to allow authorities to shoot the drones down.
Airport shutdown
Germany’s Munich Airport reopened on Saturday morning after authorities shut it down the night before for the second time in less than 24 hours after two additional drone sightings. Delays were expected to continue throughout Saturday and at least 6,500 passengers were impacted by the overnight closure.
In Denmark, drones flew over Copenhagen Airport on Sept. 22, causing a major disruption to air traffic in and out of Scandinavia’s largest airport.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said that Russian involvement couldn’t be ruled out.
