NATO weighs downing Russian aircraft after airspace violations

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00:00NATO leaders have just about had it with Russian aircraft invading their airspace, and some

00:05are saying the alliance should beef up its air patrols from simple policing to a more

00:11defensive posture.

00:15In just the last few weeks, Russian aircraft and suspected Russian aircraft were spotted

00:21in the air above Poland, Romania, Estonia, and Latvia.

00:26Most of the intruding aircraft were drones.

00:29Russian shot down more than a dozen back on September 10th.

00:33At the recent Warsaw Security Forum in Poland, both the Romanian and Norwegian defense ministers

00:40said Russian drones encroaching on their territory is getting to be a far too common occurrence.

00:46Unfortunately, we can see the work from the balcony and from time to time we see a drone

00:50falling down.

00:51Actually, we just found another one today.

00:54I just received the messages from home.

00:58We just found another drone, another Russian drone that fell down on our territory in the

01:04Danube Delta.

01:06And this is a common thing for the last three and a half years.

01:10And we also have had airspace violations from Russia in the north.

01:18But we have a long-standing tradition of being calm but with great determination to say clear

01:27that this is reckless behavior.

01:30It may be bad navigation.

01:32And we can see that more often now.

01:35So Russia has to take more security margins when it operates in close areas to our border.

01:43Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelensky, is accusing Russia of using its so-called shadow

01:48fleet of older tanker ships to launch some drones into NATO territory from the Baltic Sea.

01:54Russia denies any such activity and blames the drone incursions on faulty navigation when

02:01not denying the allegations outright.

02:04While Russian drones flying into NATO territory is becoming a common sight, Russian fighter jets

02:10intruding into that same territory is still pretty rare.

02:14But it's not unheard of.

02:16The Kremlin ruffled a lot of feathers on NATO's eastern edge when Russian MiG fighters were

02:21observed violating Estonian airspace.

02:24Initially, it was reported the Russian fighters briefly ventured into the airspace but stayed

02:29over the Baltic Sea.

02:31Now there are reports the MiGs made a deeper incursion and actually flew over Estonia for

02:37about 12 minutes.

02:40The bulk of NATO leadership sees this as an obvious escalation on Moscow's part.

02:45Ukraine says Russia is probing NATO defenses and gathering intel in preparation for a wider

02:51war.

02:52The president of Latvia says NATO needs to shift its air-policing strategy in the Baltics to

02:58one of full-scale air defense.

03:01In simple terms, this would mean deploying more NATO air defense systems to the east,

03:06including more NATO jets, and giving those pilots more aggressive rules of engagement.

03:13So instead of simply intercepting wayward Russian jets and then escorting them back to Russian

03:18airspace, as is typically the case in a policing strategy, NATO pilots would have more leeway

03:25to shoot down Russian aircraft.

03:28Not everyone in NATO is a fan of shifting to an air defense strategy because there are concerns

03:33over how Russia might react or overreact to the change.

03:38But the last three and a half years of warfare on NATO's eastern flank is certainly changing

03:44a lot of attitudes in Europe.

03:46And President Trump did throw his support behind knocking down Russian jets and drones that venture

03:52into NATO airspace.

03:54So, Admiral Giuseppe Dragone, the Italian chairman of NATO's military committee, said while it

04:00may be too soon to make a final decision, upgrading NATO's air mission from policing to defensive

04:07was definitely an option on the table.

04:09Other options could also include more investment and wide-scale deployment of Ukrainian air defense

04:16systems, which are proving their effectiveness every day against Russia.

04:20We recently went to Ukraine's Defense Tech Valley 2025 summit, where many of these systems

04:26were on display.

04:27We've already reported on some of those, and we have more reports on the way.

04:32To make sure you see them all, download the Straight Arrow News app today.

04:35Together.

04:38The Chat

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