Foreign drones and unmanned aerial vehicles breached European airspace 144 times between August 2024 and February 2026, according to a report by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) in London.
The breaches have resulted in the violation of air sovereignty of 12 countries, repeatedly forcing the closure of major airports, disrupting military activity, and flying over sensitive military installations, including nuclear weapons sites and Germany’s first Arrow-3 battery.
The report estimated that the overwhelming majority of the incidents involved Russian platforms launched from ships. Their mission was to expose response times, radar frequencies, and interception procedures used by Europe’s air defense network.
Nuclear facilities, key strategic sites, and logistical hubs
Another objective was to map critical infrastructure, including nuclear facilities, key strategic sites, and logistical hubs supporting Ukraine, such as bases where Ukrainian troops train on Patriot air defense systems and Abrams tanks.
Several European countries have already acquired Israeli-made air defense systems. Germany has deployed the Arrow-3 system, while Slovakia and, according to foreign reports, Cyprus have acquired the Barak-8.
Romania and the Czech Republic have purchased the SPYDER system, while Finland has procured David’s Sling, all produced by Rafael. Greece is in the advanced stages of approval for a major procurement deal expected to include the Barak MX, David’s Sling, and SPYDER systems.
Additionally, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) unveiled a new soft-kill defense system designed to counter aerial threats. Unlike kinetic interception systems, the new capability does not physically destroy incoming platforms. Instead, it disrupts threats that rely on Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), providing an additional layer alongside conventional interception systems.
The psychological impact of the repeated incursions was considered no less significant than their intelligence-gathering value. According to the report, the operations were intended to undermine public confidence in governments’ ability to provide security, reflecting a classic Russian psychological warfare strategy that exploits the cost imbalance between inexpensive drones and the much higher cost of intercepting them, while simultaneously denying Russian involvement.
Although attention has increasingly focused on fiber-optic drones, such as those Hezbollah has launched against IDF troops in Lebanon, which are immune to satellite navigation jamming, military planners remain equally concerned by the growing number of unmanned systems, ranging from small drones to larger UAVs and loitering munitions that rely on satellite navigation.
Such systems are difficult to detect and expensive to defeat using missiles or artillery. Electronic interception could also provide an effective response against large numbers of simultaneous threats, including drone swarms that are already appearing on the battlefield in Ukraine and are expected to spread to other theaters.
HYPNOSIS counters coordinated attacks involving multiple threats
The new system, named HYPNOSIS, employs advanced jamming and deception capabilities while integrating a network of distributed end units under a single command-and-control center to protect critical infrastructure and strategic assets, including energy facilities and air defense systems.
The system is designed to counter coordinated attacks involving multiple threats arriving simultaneously from different directions and can operate autonomously through a networked command-and-control center without requiring operator intervention.
“Israel Aerospace Industries is a global leader in developing air defense solutions against evolving aerial threats, based on the understanding that the modern battlefield requires integrated, multilayered defense capabilities capable of addressing a wide range of threats simultaneously,” IAI Chairman Boaz Levy said.
The system as a whole “represents a significant leap forward in the ability to protect strategic assets,” Guy Bar-Lev, IAI executive vice president and general manager of the Systems, Missiles and Space Group, added.
“Integrating it with hard-kill defenses strengthens the multilayered defense concept by adding another effective and cost-efficient layer of protection.”
