![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/belgian-f-16-baltic-air-policing-lithuania.jpg\")
Belgian F-16s on an earlier Baltic Air Policing rotation in Lithuania. Six Belgian F-16s are currently reinforcing the Italian-led detachment, according to AeroTime. Photo: Wikimedia Commons, GFDL<\/a><\/p>\nThen, after midnight, another drone did cross. Officials said it is believed to have entered from Belarus near Druskininkai in the south, may have briefly crossed into Poland, and then turned north through the Marijampol\u0117, Kaunas and Panev\u0117\u017eys regions before leaving Lithuania near Pasvalys. AeroTime, citing the national LT72 alert system, reported red alerts between 00:38 and 02:02, with all alerts lifted by 02:49.<\/p>\n
Two attempts, no kill<\/p>\n
The fighters on duty belong to NATO\u2019s Baltic Air Policing mission. AeroTime reported that the mission is currently led by four Italian Air Force<\/a> Eurofighter Typhoon<\/a> at \u0160iauliai Air Base<\/a>, reinforced by six Belgian<\/a> F-16<\/a>. Officials have not said which aircraft or which country fired.<\/p>\n \u201cFlying north towards Panev\u0117\u017eys, air defence aircraft made two attempts to destroy this unmanned aerial vehicle. The attempts were unsuccessful due to various conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n Rear Admiral Giedrius Premeneckas \u2014 Chief of the Defence Staff, Lithuanian Armed Forces, 11 November 2026 (via LRT)<\/p>\n According to AeroTime, Rear Admiral Giedrius Premeneckas, chief of the Lithuanian Defence Staff, said the jets identified the drone near Kaunas but could not engage it there because of the risk to civilians. Euronews reported that one missile missed and fell to the ground, and that in Latvia the air policing fighters could not get into position for a shot before the drone crossed into Estonia and on into Russia.<\/p>\n Vitkauskas suggested two possible reasons for the misses. \u201cThe fighter jets came quite close to making contact,\u201d he told LRT Radio, adding that it could have been due to poor weather, or that it may have been an area where shooting down a drone would have been unsafe.<\/p>\n LRT, Lithuania\u2019s public broadcaster, reports on the two failed attempts by NATO fighters to shoot down the drone (in Lithuanian).<\/p>\n Whose drone?<\/p>\n That is still not settled. Defence Minister Kaunas told LRT the drones were most likely Ukrainian, aimed at the Russian port of Ust-Luga and other targets in Russia, and had drifted off course. Premeneckas was more cautious: Euronews reported him saying there was no confirmed information on the drone\u2019s type and that it was not yet possible to tell whether it was Ukrainian or Russian. Diversion by electronic warfare, he said, was one possibility but remained an assumption.<\/p>\n The timing fits a large Ukrainian drone attack on northwestern Russia that night. AeroTime reported that the Leningrad region governor said a fire broke out in the Ust-Luga port area and three workers were injured. Officials in the Baltic states have not established any link between those strikes and the drones over their territory.<\/p>\n Further north, Finland\u2019s Defence Forces set up a temporary airspace restriction area over the eastern Gulf of Finland at 02:09 and a maritime restriction at 02:15. In Latvia, the armed forces issued airspace threat warnings for Cesis, Smiltene and Gulbene after 03:00 and said drone interceptors, air defence units and NATO fighters had been activated. Estonia issued alerts for southern counties, and a military spokesperson told ERR that NATO fighters had been scrambled.<\/p>\n Not the first time<\/p>\n Lithuania has been here before. NATO jets shot down a drone over the country in September, and in October a suspected drone exploded in the north near Pasvalys after fighters were scrambled; it was later identified as a Ukrainian FP-1. In May, a Romanian F-16 on Baltic Air Policing duty shot down a suspected Ukrainian drone over Estonia.<\/p>\n \u201cUnfortunately, as long as Russia\u2019s full-scale war against Ukraine continues, the incursion of combat drones into Lithuanian territory may happen again.\u201d<\/p>\n Gitanas Naus\u0117da \u2014 President of Lithuania, on Facebook, 11 November 2026 (via Euronews)<\/p>\n Sinkevi\u010dius said the night\u2019s events would be investigated thoroughly, and Lithuania is working with Poland, Latvia and Estonia to piece together what happened. For the air policing detachment, the question is simpler and harder: how to bring down a small drone at night over populated country before it slips across the next border.<\/p>\n Sources: LRT, Euronews, AeroTime, Finnish Defence Forces, Lithuanian National Crisis Management Centre<\/p>\n Comparte esta historia<\/p>\n![\"An](\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Baltic_Air_Policing.jpg\")
An Italian Air Force Eurofighter Typhoon flies over \u0160iauliai Air Base, Lithuania, in August 2023 as a US F-35A taxis below. Italian Typhoons lead the current air policing detachment at \u0160iauliai; officials have not said which aircraft fired on 11 November. U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Stephanie Longoria: Wikimedia Commons, public domain<\/a><\/p>\n