NATO – In a historic incident, on the night of September 10, at least 19 Russian kamikaze drones entered Polish airspace—some reaching more than 500 km into the country. NATO forces, including Polish F-16s, Dutch F-35s, German Patriot systems, and Italian AWACS, were deployed and successfully shot down several of the drones Reuters+2Wikipedia+2.
Poland invoked Article 4 of the NATO Treaty, calling the event “the closest Europe has come to open conflict since WWII,” and Germany announced it would expand air policing over Polish skies The Guardian+2Reuters+2. NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte affirmed that NATO’s air defences functioned as intended, with Allies from multiple countries contributing to the operation Reddit+2NATO+2.
Experts are pressing NATO to rethink its drone response, noting that expensive fighter jets and missile systems are costly versus the low-tech threat of drone ‘swarms’ AP News+2Reuters+2.
