Spy drones ‘targeted nuclear sites in UK and Europe’

The Kremlin orchestrated a concerted surveillance campaign using drones launched from shadow fleet vessels over an 18-month period to target nuclear sites in the UK, France, Belgium and the Netherlands, researchers have said.

- Dan Sabbagh

An analysis by the International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS) of 144 incidents in more than a dozen countries beginning in late 2024 concluded that Russian intelligence had operated with “substantial impunity”, leaving authorities across Europe flat-footed and confused.

Drones were repeatedly spotted over airbases and airports, yet none were captured or shot down by western militaries, exposing a strategic failure in Nato air defences that the thinktank said had been quietly acknowledged across Europe.

RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk, a UK base that was being prepared to house US nuclear weapons, and France’s nuclear submarine base at ile Longue in Brittany were among the sites targeted by unarmed drones believed to have been launched at sea.

European governments have been reluctant to accuse Russia of being behind the incidents, but Charlie Edwards, a senior IISS fellow, said: “Every government we spoke to said they would welcome the report being published”.

The incidents analysed included:

● Unusual drones that flew low into RAF Lakenheath, RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire and at least two other US air force bases in England in late November 2024. US nuclear weapons were deployed at Lakenheath in July 2025.