NATO has confirmed the launch of a new mission, Eastern Sentry, designed to reinforce its eastern flank after a wave of Russian drone incursions.
The operation, coordinated by Allied Command Operations (ACO) from Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe in Mons, Belgium, will begin in the coming days and run for an undisclosed period. NATO officials say it will bring together air, land, sea and cyber capabilities in response to what they call a growing pattern of reckless behaviour by Moscow.
General Alexus G. Grynkewich, NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe, said the Alliance was moving quickly. “The violation of Poland’s airspace earlier this week is not an isolated incident and impacts more than just Poland,” he said. “While a full assessment of the incident is ongoing, NATO is not waiting, we are acting.”
Today, the Romanian Air Force intercepted a Russian drone violating our national airspace.
Two F-16s from the 86th Air Base scrambled and tracked it until it disappeared near Chilia Veche. The population was never in danger.
Romania condemns Russia’s reckless behavior, which…
— Ionut Mosteanu (@IonutMosteanu) September 13, 2025
Member states have already pledged forces. Denmark will send two F-16s and an anti-air warfare frigate, France three Rafale fighters, and Germany four Eurofighters. The UK has also signalled it is preparing contributions. These deployments will reinforce existing NATO forces already stationed across the eastern flank.
The mission also includes an innovation strand. NATO’s Allied Command Transformation will feed in emerging capabilities, particularly counter-drone technologies. These range from new sensors to weapons systems designed to detect, track and destroy unmanned aircraft, a clear response to the type of threats seen in Poland.
Eastern Sentry was announced after Poland requested Article 4 consultations at the North Atlantic Council, where allies expressed solidarity and condemned Russia’s actions.
They are testing the limits of our response, more than ever, we need to shoot down manned aircraft intruding into our NATO airspace, board their grey fleet and sink anything damaging underseas communications. It is all the Russians understand.
Agree DB. There is a line. The Russians know where the line is and choose to cross it. NATOs response should be effective, timely, precise and backed by overwhelming military might. So shoot down the drones before they even cross into NATO airspace. If they close to within 5 miles they are legitimate targets.
Ditto missiles.
Board illegal shipping activity, arrest the crews and confiscate and impound the vessels. Any vessel with cable cutting equipment- sink it.
Russia needs to know we are not tolerating their idiotic attempts at intimidation.
They can’t even defeat Ukraine how the hell they think the whole of Europe should be worried about them beats me. European NATO has finally woken up and is undergoing a rearmament programme that is already yielding results.
Rutte is correct that the response to the baltic issues worked. There hasn’t been a successful attack since. We’ll have to give them benefit of the doubt for now.
All the while burning frame hours on manned jets to deal with polystyrene drones….
Am I missing something?
No you’re not missing anything. NATOs air defences are currently optimised for air to air intercepts and defeating high end threats.
GBAD needs massively improving with a plethora of systems from ECM, ECCM too short ranged cheap as chip line of sight missiles to canons and remote weapons platforms with machine guns. NATO needs to be able to defeat masses drone attack cheaply and effectively. The drone cost shouldn’t be surpassed by the munitions used to shoot it down.
That’s why the UK definitely should purchase dozens and dozens of the Foxhound SHORAD system demonstrated at DSEI. Martlett/ Star streak missiles x8, (for high performance targets or manned platforms) 30mm canon for larger drones and engagements at range and a 7.62mm chain gun for close range defence against smaller drones- the FPV variants so common close to the battlefield.
No, you are not missing anything. Low cost drones are a gift to Putin; a cheap way to inflict a lot of pain and cost on the west. Drones are the next level up in the hybrid warfare ‘game’.