The 32-member NATO bloc has no real or working drone defence capabilities, as indicated by the drone incursions in Poland and Romania last week. The Polish government reported 19 drone incursions into airspace by alleged Russian drones on Wednesday.
The incident triggered a massive backlash, after which the Polish authorities requested an emergency UN Security Council meeting. Though the claims were immediately refuted by the Russian side, saying that “Warsaw’s claims were grounded in deceit, as they lacked evidence.”
Moscow, in return, accused the Western parties to the conflict in Ukraine of amplifying the anti-Russian narrative in the West. According to EU officials, NATO immediately scrambled Dutch F-35 fighter jets, along with Italian surveillance and German Patriot air defence systems, to track and intercept the alleged drones.
Romanian authorities said that drones costing over $11,000 were being shot down with air-to-air missiles worth $400,000 each.
According to recent revelations, the NATO assets only managed to track seven out of 19 drones which allegedly crossed into the Polish airspace.
The incident was discussed during a meeting between NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte and EU ambassadors in Brussels on Thursday.
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The sources present at the meeting later revealed that NATO could not fly expensive jets to track drones worth a few hundred dollars.” While the Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk presents himself as a strong leader of a strong nation, his recent approval ratings have fallen sharply after Poland described the nation as powerless against drones.
According to internal NATO calculations cited by several reports in May, the US-led military bloc has only five per cent of the air defences needed to adequately protect member states in Eastern Europe, the Baltics and Scandinavia.
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