NATO is launching a new initiative dubbed “Eastern Sentry” in an effort to strengthen its eastern flank, Mark Rutte, the alliance’s secretary-general, announced on Friday.
The US-led military alliance is scaling up its eastern defences after allied planes shot down an unprecedented incursion of Russian drones in Polish airspace earlier in the week.
Regarding the size and scope of the deployment, Eastern Sentry “is going to cover the entire eastern flank of the alliance, from the high north to the Mediterranean Sea,” said Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR) General Alexus G. Grynkewich, who is in charge of organising the defence of the Alliance.
The “order to start went down as this press conference began” at 17:00 on Friday (CEST), Grynkewich said. Deployment will start in “the coming days”, Rutte said.
Several allies are supporting the initiative. Denmark is providing F-16s and an anti-air warfare frigate, France three Rafale aircraft, Germany four Eurofighter jets, and the UK “expressed its willingness to support”, a press release reads.
Grynkewich said the deployment will have an “integrated” air and ground-based air defences, and that it will “plug gaps in the line”.
Why now?
The deployment of Eastern Sentry comes after NATO member Poland saw close to 20 Russian drones flying onto its territory.
Warsaw requested extra air defences, leading to several commitments from allies.
Similar drone incidents have been reported in Poland, Romania, and the Baltic states in the past years, especially since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Lithuania and Latvia have been requesting more air defence on the Eastern flank for the past three years.
Early on Wednesday morning, Polish and Dutch F-16 and F-35 fighter jets scrambled to “engage” the drones, NATO stated. They were accompanied by Italy’s AWACS reconnaissance aircraft, while NATO tankers also took off in support. German Patriot air defence systems deployed in Poland were put on high alert.
Never before had so many aircraft entered alliance territory at the same time, or penetrated sufficiently far not to be considered an accident. And never before had NATO allies responded directly against threats in the Alliance’s airspace.
It remains undetermined whether Russia acted deliberately. Rutte repeated his earlier line: whether it was or not, the incident is “reckless and unacceptable”.
The drones “did not veer off course, but were deliberately targeted,” Polish foreign minister Radosław Sikorski said following the incident.
NATO has launched an investigation to determine this.
