Inside Putin’s new drone war against Europe launched just 50 miles from UK coast

Russia is believed to be behind drone incursions into Europe from Russian-linked cargo ships in the North Sea, UK intelligence and Nato officials have told The i Paper.

A specialist Royal Air Force (RAF) counter-drone unit was scrambled to Belgium this week to help defend the country against “rogue drone activity”.

Highly skilled personnel from the RAF’s No2 Counter Uncrewed Air Systems (CUAS) Wing are using the Orcus counter-drone system, a UK military version of defence firm Leonardo’s Falcon Shield capability, The i Paper understands.

Drones overflying military bases, defence production and research sites, and military assets have become a regular feature of Vladimir Putin’s aggression against the West.

In the last month, 15 drones have been reported over a Nato training base in eastern Belgium. Similar drone sightings have been logged by defence contractor Thales Belgium over its manufacturing facilities in Évegnée Fort – the only authorised facility producing rockets designed to intercept drones.

The incidents prompted the Belgian government to request help from European allies.

The Defence Secretary, John Healey said the move was a necessary step. “When our Nato allies call, we step up.” he said. “As hybrid threats grow, our strength lies in our alliances and our collective resolve to defend, deter and protect our critical infrastructure and airspace.”

Healey did not name the suspected aggressor behind the incidents, but UK intelligence and Nato officials say the drone incursions are thought to have been launched from Russian-linked cargo ships in the North Sea.

Now retired, Britain’s once most senior military officer and former Nato Commander, Sir James Everard said Russia’s shadow war is “accelerating”, and warned that recent events exposed a “lack of foresight” in Western defences which will “continue to bite us” unless there is action.

“This is not a new tactic for Russia as it is inexpensive, often deniable – even outsourced – sometimes brutal, yet has clear impact,” he said. “Drones from ships? A smart idea, difficult and expensive to counter . This is all pain-free for Russia.”

The latest incursions follow a pattern. In early October, a French military vessel cut through the North Sea toward the Boracay, a lumbering cargo vessel sitting off French shores.

It was flying the Benin flag, but it had been identified as one of a handful of Russian-linked ships repurposed to skirt sanctions and wage hybrid warfare against the West.

The Borocay, French investigators believe, had been used as a launch pad for drone incursions into the country earlier this year. The October raid was in response to one of at least 30 such incidents across 11 European countries since 2024.

As the French commandos climbed the rusted hull to investigate what they believed was a moving operational base for a Kremlin-backed operation, Europe’s uneasy confrontation with Moscow’s evolving drone warfare came into clear view.

In February, The i Paper revealed that three people with links to Russian military and intelligence sites travelled to stay near top-secret UK air bases where suspicious drones were sighted, with one of the individuals just metres from the perimeter of RAF Mildenhall on a day when drones were flown over.

The revelations show why concerns are growing within Nato and Europe over the way Putin is becoming emboldened in his aggression against the continent.

UK response

In response to drone sightings in Belgium, the UK, France and Germany have deployed specialist units to help the country defend its airspace and sensitive sites from drone threats.

In announcing the UK’s involvement in the operation, Healey said Belgium had “requested urgent support to counter rogue drone activity” and he had therefore directed a team of RAF specialists to deploy “immediately”.

The UK’s Orcus counter-drone system uses a range of sensors to identify, track, and defeat enemy drones. Using the systems, drones can be jammed or turned back to their pilots for identification purposes.

The systems were deployed in November last year when a flurry of drone sightings were spotted over US Air Force sites in the UK. Last month, British soldiers were also granted new authority to shoot down drones breaching military bases’ airspace.

A UK intelligence source said the Belgium operation is an opportunity for the RAF to test their anti-drone capabilities. They said there was a lot of gear to deal with the issue, but the biggest plus from the operation will be the formalisation of international coordination.

A second UK intelligence source said the multi- million pound kit being deployed is ideal to protect military bases but warned against a “whack-a-mole” approach to dealing with Russian aggresors who can clearly travel across the continent with “impunity”.

When the deployment of RAF troops was announced, Air Chief Marshal Harv Smyth said “Belgium knew exactly who they needed to call” but warned that the threat from drones is “very real and tangibly dangerous”, and we “must not underestimate the threat that Russia and other hostile actors pose to our everyday lives.”

“Hostile technology that we could only begin to imagine a few years ago is now reality, with weapons that were once deemed unconventional now mainstream and being used against us daily,” he said. “That’s why we have invested in developing our counter-drone technology alongside first-class training for the outstanding personnel who operate the very latest equipment.”

Launch pads from the sea

When French military personnel boarded the Benin-flagged Boracay on 1 October, the vessel’s captain and first mate were detained and now face criminal charges for allegedly failing to comply with the French Navy.

The ship had been one of three Russian-linked vessels, along with the Astrol 1 and the Oslo Carrier 3, which crossed nearby waters in September.

The Boracay, and the Astrol 1 are both sanctioned Russian vessels, while the Oslo Carrier 3 is owned by a Kaliningrad-based firm located near an FSB field office. The ships were monitored off Skagen for several hours.

European leaders are said to be backing plans for a multi-layered “drone wall” to quickly detect, track, and destroy Russian drones entering Europe’s airspace.

Norway has made arrests at its Kolsås and Bjerkvik military bases and recorded drone sightings over its Kongsberg defence facility and Sleipner gas field.

Across Germany, drone activity has expanded around training sites, energy assets, and bases such as Ramstein. The Saint Vincent-flagged Scanlark was detained earlier this year for suspected Russian drone operations over a German Navy vessel, according to the German Public Prosecutor.

In France, drones were reported over the Mourmelon-le-Grand base where Ukrainian troops are being trained in September. The Russian vessel Yantar was also tracked in the last year, suspected of deploying drones near subsea communication cables linking Ireland and the UK.

Collectively, these incidents point to a coordinated campaign of hybrid intelligence-gathering and disruption, using civilian-flagged vessels and small drones to surveil Nato infrastructure, military exercises, and European critical assets.

Martin Melia, a former British Army Lieutenant Colonel with a background in Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) operations said the use of cargo ships comes as “no surprise”.

“This affords them the ability to stand off from the target country in international waters and launch small, hard-to-detect drones from beyond visual line of sight to the target area, and out of range for any conventional detection systems,” he said. “All of which provides a degree of deniability, which is one of the attractions of employing small drones as a tool of hybrid activity.”

He added that this leads to a “disproportionate effect” when drones are deployed to disrupt military sites, airports, and critical national infrastructure “just by being in the airspace”, making it an “effective form of sabotage and influence activity.”

A Ministry of Defence spokesperson said: “When our NATO allies call, we step up. Belgium requested urgent support to counter rogue drone activity at their military bases, so the Defence Secretary directed a small team of RAF specialists to deploy immediately.   

“As hybrid threats grow, our strength lies in our alliances and our collective resolve to defend, deter and protect our critical infrastructure and airspace.

“It is our longstanding policy to not comment on intelligence matters.”