I think this will largely depend on how much individual countries are allowed to act on their own. These drones flying in Denmark are just absurd, how a country in Europe has no way to shoot these down is beyond me. They know that airports are a major target, how have they not invested in anything which won’t harm their own planes but can take down a drone?
At least PM Frederiksen seems to understand what is going on: “right now only one country poses a threat towards Europe and that’s Russia” … “I believe we’re only just seeing the beginning of the attacks that’ll come”
There’s an FP factory there, and an F35 base. They can’t let Russia do whatever they want, eventually these will turn into attacks. The level of response will largely depend on how much individual countries are allowed to choose their own retaliation. I think the Baltics would love to have a strong response, but are largely held back by Western Europe. Even so, it seems like they are preparing:
I didn’t follow it too closely, but weren’t they mostly hobbyist drones and poorly tracked FAA drones (Or at least that is what was claimed)? This sounds quite different, or Europe is really running with it:
We are currently seeing a trend of increasingly frequent airspace violations in NATO countries – in Poland, Romania, and Estonia. And then again yesterday over Gardermoen Airport in Norway and Kastrup in Denmark – which is an airport that is also very important to Sweden.
This afternoon I spoke with Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen following the drone attack that forced Denmark to close Kastrup for security reasons.
I expressed our support for Denmark and stressed how important it is that NATO views these various violations in context, not as separate incidents.
I can also confirm that Sweden already has anti-drone systems positioned around a number of airports, but this is nevertheless very serious.
Denmark’s assessment is that a capable actor was required to carry out this intrusion, which reinforces our view that someone or some group wants to test our collective response.
NATO’s collective response must be clear. We have the right to defend every centimetre of NATO territory, and we will do so.
Here in Sweden, we are on our guard, and regardless of which actor or actors are behind these airspace violations over NATO territory, our message is crystal clear: Sweden has the right to defend its airspace, with force if necessary, and we will defend it.
Today Ukraine hit a power plant in Belgorod. Twitter was claiming an “unknown drone”, but I doubt it. I think it was an America munition, which would require someone signing off on it.
Means nothing so far, but if anything develops from this it would be great for Ukraine, and several of the variants are unlikely to ever be used by USA.
If this does develop into something it could mean that this winter Russia won’t destroy Ukraine’s power grid for the first time since the war started out of fear of retaliation this year.
I don’t care because fuck Raytheon, but what making Europeans pay up for tomahawks is going to do is get China to make and sell more CJ10 missiles which are similar and cost half as much.
They have only been hitting targets inside Russia using Ukrainian weapons so far, American long range missiles would open up a lot of new targets.
I am unsure what intel is being referenced here, but I’m assuming it’s something that Ukraine can’t do on their own. If they just wanted to know the location of various infrastructure targets then they could look on google maps. I’m guessing this has to do with mission planning, which can be extremely complicated even if you know where the target is.
Personally I think there are better targets than infrastructure though, so it could be a threat to hit those.
Trump / USA still ‘weighing that up’ apparently (according to your x link). Like been weighing that up for months or years now. Must be some heavy stuff ;)
Translation: Trump considersgrowing a pair…if it results in selling some ‘gas’ to the euros
Ukraine got some mission planning game (using ‘HYMENS’ as decoys )
Ukraine has dramatically increased the number of attacks launched against Russian oil refineries in recent months, sparking fuel shortages and price rises in some parts of the country, BBC Verify and BBC Russian have found.
Drone strikes on refineries - some deep inside Russia - soared in August and remained high in September, an analysis of Russian media reports and verified footage showed.
Some 21 of the country’s 38 large refineries - where crude oil is converted into useable fuel like petrol and diesel - have been hit since January, with successful attacks already 48% higher than the whole of 2024.
Just trump / USA#1 claiming responsibility for stuff already happening
I believe the intelligence sharing is happening now, but yeah the long range missiles are just hopeful wishing still.
I don’t think that Trump has been weighing sending that kind of capability to Ukraine for months though. In typical Trump fashion, he seems to have done a complete 180 after finally realizing that Putin was using him.
After the absolutely shameful Zelenskyy ambush at the White House, Hegseth was slow rolling Biden aid to Ukraine, and doing everything he could to delay it so Russia could have an advantage. Meanwhile Trump was blaming Zelenskyy for getting into the war, saying Ukraine couldn’t last against Russia, and allowing his cabinet to run blatant propaganda for Putin.
He has drastically changed course very recently. Releases like this are threats to Putin, but I think he follows through on selling these to Europe to hand over to Ukraine soon. If nothing else, he’s realizing that his dreams of renewed trade with Russia is incredibly dumb and not going to result in any meaningful revenue. Selling things which America’s military will no longer use is at least something he can do to help with his failing economic policy. (I’m assuming all moral arguments for sending Ukraine arms are not even considered still.)
not quite. only upside we’ve seen this side of the big, beautiful ocean is stating Europe should shoot the straying fighters down (no back up) which we’re on record saying we’ll do anyway.
At least we fathomed / have proof where the drones into Baltics are coming from… before trumpy claims that intelligence too…
The Boracay left Russia last month and was off the coast of Denmark when unidentified drones forced the temporary closure of several airports last week.
The tanker was earlier boarded by French soldiers because it was on a list of vessels subject to EU sanctions for carrying Russian oil exports. Russian President Vladimir Putin called France’s actions “piracy”.
The Kremlin had previously denied any knowledge of the vessel.
Note ‘EU sanctions’. No US sanctions. Maybe USA weighing up those sanctions too.
America selling arms to Europe is a major development, and there are rumors of a major arms dealing occurring:
No offense to any Europeans here, but it’s pretty clear they are only willing to do anything if USA clears it. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that in the past few weeks European countries have taken action on things they should have been doing for years.
Yeah you won’t find anyone more upset about it than me.
I was not intending to make it a competition though. I’m just saying that I view Europe being more aggressive as a sign that USA is about to be as well, probably in the form of arms sales.
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