Poland’s unwanted visitors How Russia’s cheapest military drones triggered an international crisis in NATO airspace

On the night of September 10, several dozen Russian drones entered Polish airspace. Some were shot down; Poland even scrambled fighter jets to intercept them.  

The incident sparked an international scandal: Polish authorities accused Russia of an “act of aggression” and a “large-scale provocation”; Russian military spokesmen countered with assurances that “strikes against targets on Polish territory had not been planned”; and U.S. President Donald Trump commented on the episode with what sounded either like a statement of fact or a call to arms: “Here we go!”  

Numerous photos and videos shared online by Poles show that several Russian Gerbera-type drones crashed inside Poland’s borders. These drones are typically used by the Russian Armed Forces as decoys designed to “overload” Ukraine’s air defense systems, which can only track and target a limited number of objects simultaneously. In Russian strikes on Ukraine, these decoys generally make up the bulk of a “salvo,” while a smaller portion consists of combat drones such as the Geran/Shahed and missiles.  

Gerberas typically aren’t equipped with payloads (neither warheads nor surveillance cameras), even though they can accommodate such equipment. The main objective is to keep these air-defense decoys as inexpensive as possible.

Russia’s Gerbera drones probably rely on basic satellite navigation antennas that are highly susceptible to electronic warfare, both signal jamming and spoofing attacks. Meanwhile, Geran drones and guided bombs with trajectory-correction systems use Controlled Reception Pattern Antennas (CRPA), sophisticated anti-jamming technology that utilizes a satellite navigation signal receiver designed to defend against enemy interference. (Typically, the receiver’s antenna consists of several independent elements arranged in a specific geometric pattern, each of which receives the signal, and the data from these elements is processed by a computer.) 

As a result, Gerberas often veer significantly off course. Drones of this type have previously crossed into Belarus, Lithuania, and Latvia, though never on the scale seen in Poland on the night of September 10. NATO has initiated a comprehensive threat assessment and declared “vigilant oversight” and continued deterrence measures on its eastern flank. Meanwhile, some European officials, such as German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius and Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, have already insisted publicly that the Russian drones were sent into Poland on purpose.

At least one photograph that spread online, ostensibly showing a downed Russian missile, turned out to be the remains of an AIM-120 air-to-air missile fired by NATO fighter jets during the interception of the Gerberas.