Was this a deliberate test of Nato resolve?published at 08:55 British Summer Time
Frank Gardner
Security correspondent
Image source, ReutersThe key question here is: was
this a deliberate act by the Kremlin to test Nato’s response?
To lose one drone
over Poland’s airspace can be dismissed as an accident; it’s happened before.
But the incursion of “several drones”, as reported by Poland, looks rather more
deliberate.
To be clear, when we talk about
drones in this context, these are not the little quadcopters that hunt down
soldiers in trenches on the front lines with a grenade or artillery shell slung
underneath.
These are much larger, pilotless aircraft packed with high
explosive.
The Iranian-built Shahed-136, for example, measures 3.5m (11 feet)
long by 2.5m (8.2 feet) wide. The Russian-made copies of these, the Geran-2,
can carry a payload of anywhere between 30-50kg (66-110lb) of explosive, enough
to smash into a residential block and kill or maim the inhabitants of several
homes.
Every conversation I have had
recently with Nato military officials or academic experts on what Russia’s next
moves are likely to be all conclude that Moscow will want to test Nato’s
resolve in some way.
Given Donald Trump’s apparent fondness for Vladimir Putin, there is some scepticism over whether his administration would actually come to
the aid of a Nato member if they were attacked close to their borders.
