{"id":792348,"date":"2026-05-13T01:42:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T01:42:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/792348\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T01:42:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T01:42:17","slug":"ukrainian-drone-pilots-turned-a-military-exercise-in-sweden-into-a-critical-warning-for-nato","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/792348\/","title":{"rendered":"Ukrainian drone pilots turned a military exercise in Sweden into a critical warning for NATO"},"content":{"rendered":"

GOTLAND, Sweden (AP) \u2014 The war game scenario was this: One of NATO<\/a> \u2019s newest members, Sweden, was under threat by an unnamed country that was building up troops along the military alliance\u2019s eastern border. And in an unusual twist, non-NATO member Ukraine<\/a> was there to advise on drone warfare<\/a> \u2014 and delivered a critical warning to the alliance.<\/p>\n

The Associated Press was allowed to witness the Swedish-led military exercise this week as Europe faces not only the threat of Russia<\/a> but the wavering of NATO\u2019s most powerful member, the United States.<\/p>\n

The war game that also involved U.S. forces played out with a real threat in mind. For months, Russia has ramped up sabotage including cyberattacks against critical infrastructure and disinformation against countries across Europe, as detailed by an AP investigation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The war game scenario \u2014 with the Swedish island of Gotland in theory facing power outages and food shortages because of sabotage \u2014 tested what NATO members might do before NATO\u2019s collective defense clause, Article 5, has been invoked.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn theory, it could happen tomorrow,\u201d said Rear Adm. Jonas Wikstr\u00f6m, director of the exercise.<\/p>\n

Europe considers Trump\u2019s volatile approach to NATO<\/p>\n

Sweden\u2019s chief of defense, Gen. Michael Claesson, noted that the U.S. is Europe\u2019s most militarily capable ally so \u201cany change in the American presence\u201d affects the overall dynamics. He told the AP that announcements by U.S. President Donald Trump of troop reductions in Europe are interpreted \u201cas the Americans are leaving \u2014 and they are not.\u201d<\/p>\n

Europe\u2019s military leaders, however, are watching closely how Trump and his administration treat NATO, which Trump has described as a \u201cpaper tiger.\u201d Most recently, he has ordered the withdrawal of at least 5,000 U.S. troops from Germany<\/a> and threatens to remove more.<\/p>\n

Trump also has criticized allies, and NATO, for not coming to the aid of the U.S. in the Iran war, while U.S. air defense systems and missiles<\/a> have been moved toward the Middle East from Europe, raising concerns about gaps in protection. Some European nations have been told they will face delays to their orders of U.S. weapons.<\/p>\n

Claesson denied that recent announcements \u2014 including plans for a \u201chybrid navy\u201d between a group of Nordic and Baltic nations, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, as announced by Gen. Sir Gwyn Jenkins, the U.K\u2019s First Sea Lord \u2014 were a hedge against a possible future where the U.S. does not come to the aid of NATO allies.<\/p>\n

But, he said, \u201ceverything that offers European allies freedom of action is good.\u201d<\/p>\n

The U.K. and Norway also aim to build a combined frigate fleet, said Marte Gerhardsen, state secretary at the Norwegian Ministry of Defense.<\/p>\n

Ukrainian drone forces destroy Swedish troops in exercise<\/p>\n

Since Trump returned to the White House in January 2025, he also has paused intelligence sharing with Ukraine and at times aligned with Moscow in negotiations to end the war.<\/p>\n

In the war game scenario this week, Ukrainian forces had a chance to demonstrate what they have learned on the battlefield and why their country might be a worthy NATO member.<\/p>\n

A group of Ukrainian drone pilots, invited to teach Western forces how to win at drone warfare, destroyed Sweden\u2019s troops in an exercise where the Ukrainians played the role of the aggressor, a 24-year-old drone pilot told the AP.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey stopped the training three times\u201d for troops to work out what to do better, but if it were real life they would have been dead, he said, giving his call sign Tarik in line with Ukrainian military regulations.<\/p>\n

Swedish troops have potential but need to improve their drones and tactics and commanders need a deeper understanding of drone warfare, said another pilot with the call sign Karat.<\/p>\n

He described flying small, first-person-view attack drones on the front line against Russian forces. Sometimes drone pilots are supported by reconnaissance drone teams but other times they are \u201cworking blindly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Western forces cannot understand what it is like, he added: \u201cYou need to see this with your own eyes.\u201d<\/p>\n

All Western forces need to \u201clearn rapidly\u201d how to perform drone and counter-drone operations, and the \u201cfastest\u201d way is to listen to the Ukrainians, Claesson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat they\u2019ve taught us is you have to really focus on your survivability and how you can\u2019t be detected,\u201d said Brig. Gen. Curtis King with the U.S. military. At the same time, he said, Western nations need to focus on \u201cdeep\u201d detection capabilities to spot drones from far away.<\/p>\n

Such knowledge is desperately needed along Russia\u2019s border with NATO where there has been a spate of drone incursions in recent months, including from Ukrainian drones sent off course by Russian jamming.<\/p>\n

The goal is to have systems that work together so that radar made by different companies in different countries can be integrated to share data and track threats, King said. That process has started but, \u201cwe\u2019re not there yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Putin could use Gotland to test the alliance<\/p>\n

The war game focused on the Swedish island of Gotland because it is strategically located in the Baltic Sea between the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad \u2014 where Moscow has stationed missiles \u2014 and Sweden.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you control Gotland, you pretty much control the central part of the Baltic Sea,\u201d Claesson said.<\/p>\n

The Baltic Sea is a financial lifeline for Russia as vessels with its \u201cshadow fleet\u201d<\/a> carry oil and liquefied natural gas that Moscow uses to fund its war in Ukraine.<\/p>\n

After the Cold War, Sweden effectively abandoned its military presence on Gotland but Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 prompted a rethink and a strengthened military presence there. And Sweden, along with Finland, decided to join NATO in 2024.<\/p>\n

\u201cA very reasonable scenario\u201d is that Russian President Vladimir Putin could use Gotland to test NATO by trying to take a thin sliver of alliance territory to probe the collective reaction, Claesson said.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press writer Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GOTLAND, Sweden (AP) \u2014 The war game scenario was this: One of NATO \u2019s newest members, Sweden, was…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":792349,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[133954,69,56270,440,57,6087,323446,323445,323447,8132,13342,8959,50,8961,80,129,66991,274,103,107],"class_list":{"0":"post-792348","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-curtis-king","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-drone-surveillance-and-warfare","11":"tag-europe","12":"tag-general-news","13":"tag-iran-war","14":"tag-jonas-wikstrm","15":"tag-marte-gerhardsen","16":"tag-michael-claesson","17":"tag-military-and-defense","18":"tag-military-technology","19":"tag-nato","20":"tag-news","21":"tag-north-atlantic-treaty-organization","22":"tag-politics","23":"tag-sweden","24":"tag-sweden-government","25":"tag-vladimir-putin","26":"tag-world","27":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116564731481202157","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=792348"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792348\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/792349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=792348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=792348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=792348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}