The mysterious drone flights that disrupted major European airports and flew over NATO member military bases housing US nuclear weapons may be the work of a coordinated Kremlin campaign launched from commercial ships linked to Russia.
That recent assessment by the U.K.-based International Institute for Strategic Studies used automatic identification system (AIS) maritime tracking data and other publicly available data to show how Russia-linked ships and “shadow fleet” vessels carrying sanctioned Russian oil were often nearby during several drone incidents. The report suggests that the drone incidents, which affected a dozen NATO member countries and Ireland between August 2024 and February 2026, also revealed the vulnerability of European air defenses to surveillance and harassment incursions by low-cost drones.
The IISS report identified 144 drone sightings in Europe during that period that were unlikely to involve amateur recreational drones or drone activities related to the war in Ukraine. About 48 percent of the sightings took place at military bases, 26 percent at critical infrastructure such as ports and energy or industrial facilities, and 18 percent at civilian airports. Most occurred overnight or in the early morning hours before dawn, and the drones themselves were typically described in media reports as “professional” or “military-style” drones.
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