Late on the night of September 9, twenty-one medium-sized, fixed-wing drones entered Poland’s airspace. Several were shot down, while others crashed, some deep inside Polish territory. Later that month, a series of drone sightings were reported around airports and military installations in Denmark, even forcing a brief suspension of flights. Beyond suspicion of Russian involvement and the fact that both of these countries are NATO member states, the two incidents share little in common. But together, they offer a sense of the range of ways in which drones can pose threats. To explore those threats—and the challenge of developing systems than can both secure sovereign airspace to protect maneuver formations on the battlefield—John Amble is joined on this episode by Dr. Stacie Pettyjohn, a senior fellow and director of the Defense Program at the Center for a New American Security.

The MWI Podcast is produced with the generous support of the West Point Class of 1974.