Independent researchers uncovered 144 maritime launched drone flights over 18 months, suggesting coordinated Russian surveillance of Western nuclear and air bases.<\/p>\n
According to an international think tank on strategic affairs, over 18 months Russia conducted surveillance of nuclear facilities in the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, and the Netherlands using drones launched from ships of a \u201cshadow fleet\u201d off the shores near the targets. The report covers 144 incidents and reaches back to events from late 2024 in more than ten countries.<\/p>\n
Analysts note that the actions of Russian intelligence developed with little hindrance: drones occasionally appeared over military bases and airports, yet none were intercepted or shot down, indicating a significant gap in NATO air-defense systems.<\/p>\n
Among the targets mentioned are drones that carried no weapons: the British base at Lakenheath, where American nuclear weapons are stationed, the French submarine base at \u00cele Longue in Brittany, and at least two other US Air Force bases in England.<\/p>\n
Some ships of the \u201cshadow fleet\u201d were 100 to 200 km from the shores of the target countries.<\/p>\n
In one case a police helicopter tried to track drones approaching Britain, but withdrew for safety reasons. The report also notes that there was a proposal to use a counter-drone laser, but it was not implemented.<\/p>\n
In November and December 2025 drones were spotted over the Kleine-Brogel air base in Belgium and Volkel in the Netherlands, where American air-delivered nuclear weapons are stored, while ships of the \u201cshadow fleet\u201d linked to Russia remained in the international waters of the North Sea.<\/p>\n
As noted in the report, drones were likely launched from ships off the coasts of the target countries with transponders turned off; other ships acted as signal repeaters.<\/p>\n
In our assessment, there is a high probability that the Kremlin conducted a coordinated operation using UAVs over European territory, covering more than a dozen NATO countries and Ireland.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Charlie Edwards<\/p>\n
According to experts, this marked a series of tactical successes for the Kremlin and a strategic defeat for the defense systems of allies, which had been oriented toward traditional threats rather than cheap, low-flying, relatively small drones.<\/p>\n
As the report\u2019s author explained, Russia sought to obtain the core of intelligence, general intelligence, mapping of military logistics and supply chains, and to achieve economic exhaustion and psychological warfare.<\/p>\n
The number of significant drone detections in Europe peaked last year \u2013 more than 30 cases in September and November, with Germany recording the most. Since the start of detentions of \u201cshadow fleet\u201d ships by European navies in 2026, their number has declined.<\/p>\n
Experts emphasize the need to strengthen air defenses and deepen coordination among NATO allies to prevent further aerial reconnaissance events using drones.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Independent researchers uncovered 144 maritime launched drone flights over 18 months, suggesting coordinated Russian surveillance of Western nuclear…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5002,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[380,3533,54,3534,3535,3532,3266],"class_list":["post-5001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-counter-drone","tag-nato-air-defense","tag-news","tag-nuclear-base-surveillance","tag-russian-drones","tag-russian-drones-shadow-fleet-nato-air-defense-nuclear-base-surveillance-counter-drone","tag-shadow-fleet"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5001\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}