Drones over Europe raise concerns about Russian activities

Far from the battlefields of Ukraine, drones are forcing European countries to change their thinking about national defense. Despite repeated provocations, NATO members appear ill-prepared for the new drone era, as Russia probes their defenses, seemingly at will.

From August 2024 to February 2026, there were 144 incidents of suspicious drones over a dozen European countries, according to a new report released Thursday by the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies.

They included the sighting off the coast of Sweden, where a drone near the French carrier was jammed by Swedish forces in February, as well as the ones over Denmark and the Netherlands last year. These did not involve store-bought quadcopters operated by hobbyists or malfunctioning Ukrainian drones straying into NATO airspace, but often complex reconnaissance aircraft flying over military bases and critical infrastructure.

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