NATO adopts 360-degree air-defence strategy to counter rising drone and missile threats

NATO officials announced that the alliance’s air-defence concept is being overhauled from a focus on air policing to a “multi-layered, 360-degree” framework designed to meet threats from manned aircraft, unmanned drones and both cruise and ballistic missiles. The revision expands beyond Quick Reaction Alert fighter scrambles to incorporate surface-based air-defence, mobile counter-drone teams, helicopters and next-generation sensors contributed by member states under NATO command.

The shift was triggered by a wave of Russian drone violations that began last year, including the largest spillover of the Ukraine war into NATO airspace over Poland, and subsequent incursions in the Baltic region, Finland and Romania. NATO’s “Eastern Sentry” operation, launched after those violations, laid the groundwork for the new posture. The alliance warned that the growing frequency of such incursions, along with other hybrid attacks, raises the risk to member territories. Experts have called for a reassessment of NATO’s policy of intercepting threats only after they cross into Ukraine.