Drone, airspace & location glossary

Drones & munitions

• Loitering munition

  Shahed-136 · Geran-2

  Iranian-designed one-way attack drone, mass-produced by Russia as the Geran-2; the loitering munition most frequently detected crossing into EU airspace.
• fixed-wing decoy UAV

  Gerbera

  Russian fixed-wing decoy drone that mimics the Shahed-136 profile to overload Ukrainian air defence, increasingly fitted with warheads for direct strikes.
• fixed-wing decoy UAV

  Chaika · Seagull

  Ukrainian fixed-wing decoy drone easily mistaken in flight for the larger AN-196 Liutyi; a March 2026 Finland incident required a public correction.
• Class of guided drone-munitions

  Loitering munition · Kamikaze drone

  Umbrella term for a guided drone built to loiter over or fly toward a target before diving in and detonating; slower and more wind-affected than a missile.
• autonomous naval drone

  Magura V5

  Ukrainian unmanned strike boat operated by military intelligence against Russia's Black Sea Fleet, credited with over 17 warships sunk or damaged since 2023.
• US-built AI-enabled one-way strike drone

  Hornet

  US-built, AI-enabled one-way strike drone used by Ukraine against Russian logistics routes linking Russia to occupied Crimea. Not confirmed in any EU border incident.
• hand-launched anti-aircraft interceptor drone

  Sokol-I

  Russian fixed-wing interceptor drone designed to counter small Ukrainian reconnaissance and strike UAVs at tactical altitudes. Hand-launched, foam airframe, proximity-fused warhead or kinetic kill. Deployed operationally from June 2026.
• tactical loitering munition

  Lancet · Item 51 / Item 52

  Russian tactical loitering munition used against Ukrainian artillery and armour near the front line; not confirmed in EU airspace.
• medium-endurance ISR drone

  Orlan-10

  Russian reconnaissance and electronic-warfare drone used for artillery spotting inside Ukraine; almost entirely absent from EU airspace incidents.
• balloon-launched glide munition

  DART

  Ukrainian glide munition launched from stratospheric balloons, designed to defeat jamming by shutting off navigation before impact.
• long-range loitering munition

  Italmas · Izdeliye 54

  Russian long-range loitering munition, built by Lancet-maker ZALA Aero, flown in mixed raids alongside Shahed and Gerbera drones since 2023.
• long-range one-way attack drone

  AN-196 Liutyi · Liutyi

  Ukraine's long-range strike drone built to answer the Shahed-136; the airframe Chaika is frequently mistaken for in EU airspace incidents.
• naval strike drone

  Sea Baby

  Ukrainian heavy naval strike drone operated by the SBU; struck the Kerch Bridge twice and now carries rocket and machine-gun variants.

Electronic warfare

• Electronic warfare technique

  GPS spoofing

  Technique that broadcasts counterfeit satellite signals to make a receiver report a false position; documented against tankers in the Gulf of Finland.
• Electronic warfare technique

  GNSS jamming

  Technique that overpowers satellite-navigation frequencies with noise, denying any position fix; persistent over the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad.
• Electronic warfare technique

  Datalink override

  Suspected technique for hijacking a drone's command or navigation link mid-flight; the Baltic incidents linked to it show broad electronic-warfare diversion, not confirmed link takeover.
• ground-based electronic-warfare complex

  Tobol · 14Ts227

  Russian stationary electronic-warfare complex in Kaliningrad, repeatedly identified as a source of GPS jamming across the Baltic and Poland.

Ground systems

• unmanned ground vehicle

  GOBLIN

  Polish unmanned ground vehicle for reconnaissance and casualty evacuation, tested defending the Suwałki Gap during NATO's Gallant Boar 2026 exercise.
• ground-launched loitering munition

  GNOM

  Polish ground-launched loitering munition, GOBLIN's smaller sibling, tested for kinetic strikes on armour during 2025 and 2026 NATO exercises.

Other systems

• six-wheeled armoured personnel carrier

  Patria 6x6 · XA-300, CAVS

  Finnish 6x6 armoured personnel carrier and the base platform for NATO's multinational CAVS programme; Lithuania announced plans to procure 936 units in May 2026.
• Passive acoustic air-defence detection system

  Sky Fortress

  Ukrainian network of low-cost acoustic sensors that detects drones and cruise missiles by sound rather than radar; Lithuania is fielding the system from 2026 to complement its radar-based air defence.
• NATO maritime security mission

  Baltic Sentry

  NATO's ongoing maritime mission to protect Baltic Sea undersea cables and pipelines, launched after suspected sabotage of a Finland-Estonia power link.
• Anti-ballistic missile interceptor system

  FREYJA

  Ukraine-led pan-European anti-ballistic missile interceptor (FP-7.X), developed with nine NATO partners, targeting a unit cost of $700,000 and operational within 12 months.

Place hubs for the corridors, borders, and sites that recur in AirVeto’s coverage — each with a live wind map and the incidents recorded there.

• Poland

  Suwałki Gap

  The 65 km land corridor linking Poland to Lithuania — and the EU's only land connection to the Baltic states.
• Russia

  Kaliningrad

  The Russian exclave bounded by Poland, Lithuania, and the Baltic Sea — airspace boundary of outsized strategic weight.
• Lithuania

  Vilnius International Airport (EYVI)

  Lithuania's main airport, 30 km from the Belarusian border — repeatedly closed by balloon incursions since October 2025.
• Poland

  Polish-Belarusian border

  The EU's longest land frontier with Belarus — focal point of migration, airspace, and cross-border incidents.
• Estonia

  Gulf of Finland

  Baltic Sea arm separating Estonia from Finland, bounded to the east by Russia — dense AIS traffic and GPS-spoofing reports.
• Region

  NATO eastern flank

  The frontier where EU airspace meets Russia and Belarus across five NATO member states — the active zone of drone incursions, smuggling balloon recoveries, and Baltic Air Policing intercepts since 2025.
• Finland

  Finland

  Finland shares a 1,340-kilometre border with Russia and recorded four drone finds in spring 2026 — the densest EW-diverted drone cluster in any NATO member state that period.