Nato faces 'Russian airspace incursions' as cheap drones shut airports and expose Europe’s soft underbelly
A string of Russian incursions into Nato airspace has triggered warnings of unpredictable consequences, with the alliance cautioning Moscow that further provocations will be met with a military response.
Listen to this article
In the past two weeks, Russian drones and fighter jets have entered allied skies in what officials believe is a Kremlin attempt to test Western resolve.
Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte said yesterday: “We do not want to see a continuation of this dangerous pattern by Russia, intentional or not. But we stand ready and willing to continue to defend every inch of allied territory.”
The escalation has pushed Nato countries closer to the possibility of direct confrontation with Russia. Even Donald Trump – who accused European governments at the UN of “destroying their heritage” through immigration – backed the alliance, saying he would support Nato forces shooting down Russian aircraft if they entered allied territory.
But as pressure mounts in the skies, a parallel threat is also exposing Europe’s vulnerabilities: drones shutting down major airports.
On Monday, Copenhagen and Oslo airports were forced into temporary closures after multiple drone sightings. Flights were diverted, passengers stranded, and two of Europe’s busiest transport hubs paralysed.
Security experts warn this is no coincidence. Jan-Hendrik Boelens, founder and CEO of Alpine Eagle, argues in an exclusive piece for LBC Opinion that Europe is sleepwalking into a new era of drone warfare where civilian infrastructure has become the frontline.
Read more: All traffic at Copenhagen Airport halted after 'large drones' spotted in the sky
“The disruption was not an accident or bad luck; it was a warning,” Boelens writes, pointing to incidents from Gatwick in 2018 to repeated sightings over US and European military sites.
He warns that ground radars often fail to detect drones, police lack the authority or equipment to respond, and military operators face legal barriers in civilian airspace. Meanwhile, procurement systems remain too slow to keep pace with rapidly evolving threats.
Boelens argues that unless governments urgently invest in counter-drone systems and empower law enforcement to act, adversaries will continue to exploit airports, ports and power stations as soft targets.
“If a €500 quadcopter can close down an entire airport ecosystem, the cost-benefit ratio overwhelmingly favours the attacker,” he writes.
The EU has floated the idea of a “drone wall” along its eastern border, integrating sensors and jammers into a continent-wide shield. But Boelens cautions that without speed and decisive action, it risks remaining more concept than capability.
His company, Alpine Eagle, is developing Sentinel, described as the world’s first airborne, AI-powered counter-drone system, already trialled with European forces. Yet Boelens says technology alone is not enough: “Either Europe treats drone defence as a strategic priority, or we continue to discover our vulnerabilities the hard way.”
With Nato scrambling jets against Russia and airports closing runways over drones, the frontlines of Europe’s security are becoming harder to define – and increasingly closer to home.