Last night, Poland declared that its airspace had been violated by at least 10 Russian drones. The drones were reportedly shot down by Polish fighter jets.
Around midnight, two AWACS assets took off to provide increased monitoring of the situation.
The first was a Polish Air Force Saab AEW&C (reg. 3401 – c/s THUNDER1), which departed from Lublin Airport at 01:09 CEST. The aircraft orbited over eastern Poland until 06:00, when it landed back in Lublin. It is now flying towards its home base.
At 00:47, an Italian Air Force Gulfstream E.550 CAEW (reg. MM62293 – c/s PERSEO71) took off from Ämari Air Base in Estonia and headed south. To underline the gravity of the situation, the Italian aircraft—unlike during its usual patrols in the Baltic area—switched off its ADS-B transponder, effectively “disappearing” from tracking websites. It only reappeared at 07:54 when it was returning to base.
Since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, this is probably the moment of greatest tension reached on NATO’s eastern flank.
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