Lithuania orders review after drone alert and fighter scramble over birds

Lithuania’s defence minister has ordered an expert review of decisions made after an unidentified object entered the country near Varėna, while NATO fighter jets were later scrambled over what turned out to be a flock of birds, LRT reports.

The object remained in Lithuanian airspace for several dozen minutes early Sunday before flying towards the Kaliningrad region. Residents were not warned about the possible danger.

Defence Minister Robertas Kaunas said the military’s explanations did not satisfy him and ordered detailed answers by Tuesday evening. He said his confidence in the commander of the armed forces had not changed.

Residents of Varėna district reported hearing what they believed was a drone at about 3:30 a.m. on Sunday. Saulius Jočys, a former officer and the local representative in the village of Perloja, said the sound and flight path led him to believe it was a drone travelling towards Druskininkai.

Military air force radars detected an unidentified object. According to the National Crisis Management Centre, it flew from Belarus towards the Kaliningrad region. The centre’s head, Vilmantas Vitkauskas, said the possibility of a reconnaissance flight or an attempt to test Lithuania’s reaction could not be ruled out. He said it was unlikely to have been a Ukrainian drone that had gone off course.

No warning messages were sent to residents. Kaunas summoned the military leadership to explain the decision and asked for an expert working group to prepare a detailed analysis.

Later on Sunday, a possible air danger warning was issued in Vilnius and Vilnius district, as well as in Trakai and Elektrėnai districts. NATO fighter jets were scrambled and determined that the radar contacts were a flock of birds.

Opposition politicians questioned the consistency of the warning system. Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen, leader of the Liberal Movement, said the decision-making algorithm was still unclear. Laurynas Kasčiūnas, leader of the Homeland Union Lithuanian Christian Democrats, said warnings could become frequent if authorities could not distinguish birds from drones.

Experts say it is particularly difficult for radar systems to distinguish birds from aircraft. Retired Major Darius Antanaitis said radar uses the Doppler effect, while identifying whether a detected object is an aircraft, drone or bird formation requires micro-Doppler analysis. Even that analysis may not provide a clear answer when birds fly close together.

Edvardas Mažeikis, a former air force commander, said fighter jets are raised almost every time an unidentified object is detected during peacetime. The final decision is made by NATO’s Joint Air Operations Centre in Germany.

Mažeikis said the risk of such incidents could potentially be reduced with a wider range of radar systems. Long-range and short-range radars have different capabilities, and some can identify separate objects in the air, including a bird formation.