THIS IS A TEST, THIS IS ONLY A TEST — FOR NOW: When the initial reports came in that Russian drones had penetrated Poland’s airspace, the explanation from neighboring Belarus, a Russian ally, was that GPS jamming sent the drones off course. Poland and Ukraine aren’t buying that explanation, citing how far into Poland the drones flew and how many were actually launched from just across the Belarusian-Polish border.
“Poland’s airspace was breached 19 times by drones manufactured in Russia. Our assessment is that they did not veer off course but were deliberately targeted,” Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said in a post on X. “Even though NATO is not at war, Russian aggression strikes beyond Ukraine.”
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In his nightly video address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia’s motives were clear: to probe Poland’s eastern defenses and test the West’s response. “This was not an accident or a mistake — it was deliberate. The Russians used both Ukrainian and Belarusian territory to enter Polish airspace,” Zelensky said. “The Russians are testing the limits of what is possible. They are testing reactions. They are watching closely how NATO armed forces act: what they can do and what they cannot do yet.
“This was a calculated Russian activity. And we all saw the result — how difficult it was to counter,” he said. “And this may well be part of their ‘training plan,’ so to speak.”
RUTTE: ‘WHETHER INTENTIONAL OR NOT, IT IS ABSOLUTELY RECKLESS’: At NATO headquarters, ambassadors from the alliance’s 32 members, who were in Brussels for a regularly scheduled meeting, convened under the provision of Article 4 of the NATO treaty, which states, “The Parties will consult together whenever, in the opinion of any of them, the territorial integrity, political independence or security of any of the Parties is threatened.”
Following the meeting, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said, “Allies expressed solidarity with Poland and denounced Russia’s reckless behaviour. A full assessment of the incident is ongoing. What is clear is that the violation last night is not an isolated incident.
“Allies are resolved to defend every inch of Allied territory. We will closely monitor the situation along our eastern flank, our air defences continually at the ready.”
Rutte stopped short of accusing Moscow of deliberately targeting Poland. “Whether it was intentionally or not, it is absolutely reckless. It is absolutely dangerous. But as I said, the full assessment is ongoing,” he said when pressed by a reporter. “Russia is waging a dangerous war of aggression against Ukraine that continually targets civilians and civilian infrastructure. Allies are determined to step up their support for Ukraine in the face of Russia’s escalating campaign.”
In a statement, the Russian Foreign Ministry denied targeting Poland and insisted its drone didn’t have the range to penetrate Poland’s sovereign airspace. “The strike did not include any targets in the territory of the Republic of Poland, and that the range of the drones that delivered a strike at the Ukrainian defense industry facilities, which, according to Warsaw, entered Poland’s airspace, is below 700 kilometers.”
WHAT’S WITH ‘HERE WE GO’? While allies and the U.S. ambassador to NATO all issued statements of solidarity with Poland and vowed to defend “every inch of NATO territory,” President Donald Trump, who was dining out in a local Washington, D.C., restaurant Tuesday night as the drone incursion on a NATO country unfolded, offered a cryptic post on his Truth Social account, almost as if he were a curious bystander.
“What’s with Russia violating Poland’s airspace with drones?” Trump posted. “Here we go!”
While NATO allies the Netherlands, Italy, and Germany all joined the effort to shoot down the Russian drones, no U.S. forces or support were part of the defensive mission. “Our air defenses were activated and successfully ensured the defense of NATO territory, as they are designed to do,” Rutte said. “Several Allies were involved alongside Poland. This included Polish F16s, Dutch F35s, Italian AWACS, NATO Multi Role Tanker Transport, and German Patriots.”
Trump did speak by phone with Polish President Karol Nawrocki, who was at the White House last week, and French President Emmanuel Macron. In a post on X, Nawrocki said his conversation with Trump “confirmed allied unity,” while Macron posted, “Excellent phone call with President @realDonaldTrump. We discussed the troubling developments in Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, particularly following Russian drone incursions into Poland.”
NATO CONDEMNS RUSSIA’S ‘RECKLESS’ BEHAVIOR AFTER POLAND DRONE INCURSION
Good Thursday morning and welcome to Jamie McIntyre’s Daily on Defense, written and compiled by Washington Examiner National Security Senior Writer Jamie McIntyre (@jamiejmcintyre) and edited by Christopher Tremoglie. Email here with tips, suggestions, calendar items, and anything else. Sign up or read current and back issues at DailyonDefense.com. If signing up doesn’t work, shoot us an email and we’ll add you to our list. And be sure to follow me on Threads and/or on X @jamiejmcintyre
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HAPPENING TODAY: THE 24TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 9/11 ATTACKS: It was 24 years ago today, a sunny, cloudless Tuesday, when, sitting at my desk in the Pentagon’s E-ring, I began to get messages on CNN’s internal computer system asking if I was OK. It had been over an hour since the planes hit the World Trade Center, and my small 10-by-20-foot office was full of Pentagon workers and military personnel who did not have TVs on their desks and were glued to the coverage from New York.
“Why are they asking me if I’m OK?” I thought. I’m at the Pentagon; the attack was in New York. I looked at the TV, and there was my answer. My colleague and producer Chris Plante, now a popular conservative talk show host, was just arriving to join me at work when American Airlines Flight 77 hit the southwest side of the building, and Chris was on the air, reporting live from the scene on his cellphone.
That’s how I learned the Pentagon had been hit. From CNN. And I was in the building. The Pentagon was built with so much concrete during World War II — rebar was in short supply — that I didn’t feel the impact on the other side. Others around me said they did. I didn’t. I rushed to the scene, took a quick look around, and rushed back to the office to file my first report.
In the middle of my report, anchor Aaron Brown in New York interrupted me because something was happening behind him. The first tower fell. We all knew the world had changed and life would never be quite the same. This report, recalling the first moments of the attack, was filed five years later.
Today, in New York, at the Pentagon, and in Stoystown, Pennsylvania, the events of that day will be commemorated, and the nearly 3,000 victims will be remembered.
ALSO TODAY: The Senate Armed Services Committee takes up the nomination of Marine Gen. Christopher Mahoney to be vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at 9:15 a.m.
TRUMP BLAMES DEATH OF CHARLIE KIRK ON ‘RADICAL-LEFT POLITICAL VIOLENCE’: In a recorded statement posted on social media, Trump blamed what he called the “heinous assassination of Charlie Kirk” on “the fact that violence and murder are the tragic consequence of demonizing those with whom you disagree day after day, year after year, in the most hateful and despicable way possible.
“I am filled with grief and anger,” Trump said. “This is a dark moment for America.”
“For years, those on the radical left have compared wonderful Americans, like Charlie, to Nazis and the world’s worst mass murderers and criminals. This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing in our country today, and it must stop right now,” Trump said. “From the attack on my life in Butler, Pennsylvania, last year, which killed a husband and father, to the attacks on ICE agents to the vicious murder of a healthcare executive in the streets of New York to the shooting of House Majority Leader Steve Scalise and three others, radical-left political violence has hurt too many innocent people and taken too many lives.”
Trump vowed to defund “organizations that fund and support” political violence, “as well as those who go after our judges, law enforcement officials, and everyone else who brings order to our country.”
TRUMP TO TARGET ‘RADICAL-LEFT’ GROUPS FUNDING VIOLENCE THAT LED TO CHARLIE KIRK’S DEATH
NATO’S FEEBLE DRONE DEFENSE: If in fact the Russian drone incursion was a test of NATO’s defenses in Poland, the Russians got some valuable data about how unprepared the NATO allies are to counter a sustained drone assault.
“Russia is likely attempting to gauge both Poland’s and NATO’s capabilities and reactions in the hopes of applying lessons learned to future conflict scenarios with the NATO alliance,” the Institute for the Study of War said in its latest assessment of the war in Ukraine. “Russia is likely trying to probe Poland’s and NATO’s defensive capabilities and reaction times while observing their command and control (C2) structure in action. Russia likely also aimed to test the interoperability of NATO member states working to neutralize a threat in NATO airspace.”
Unlike Ukraine, which consistently downs more than 90% of drones using its homegrown interceptor drones, Polish and Dutch fighter jets had to use air-to-air missiles that cost upward of $2 million to down Russian drones, many of which were decoys that cost less than $10,000. Poland shot down three, possibly four, drones with its F-16s. It is not clear how many were taken down by the Dutch F-35s or German Patriot missiles.
In a report just out this morning, the Center for a New American Security warned that the United States “is unprepared to defend against present and future drone threats that have eroded decades of American air dominance.”
The report, “Countering the Swarm,” concludes that while the small drone threat is nothing new, the U.S. is “vulnerable and unprepared” despite a decade of Pentagon investment, and it cites examples that could have been drawn from Russia’s drone “attack” this week.
“While U.S. forces in the Middle East shot down most of the hundreds of inbound drones, they were facing a relatively modest threat with only a few drones fired at a time,” the report says. “Nevertheless, the small but sustained threat of one-way attack drones strained U.S. defenses. Oftentimes, U.S. troops had to employ missiles that cost hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars to intercept a $50,000 drone.”
“This is not a cost-effective or sustainable approach against a larger drone threat,” the report concludes.
DAN CAINE: EVEN TOM CLANCY COULDN’T ENVISION CURRENT THREATS TO US
THE RUNDOWN:
Washington Examiner: NATO condemns Russia’s ‘reckless’ behavior after Poland drone incursion
Washington Examiner: Trump to target ‘radical-left’ groups funding violence that led to Charlie Kirk’s death
Washington Examiner: Secret Service in ‘fact-finding mode’ after close calls reignite questions about Trump’s protection
Washington Examiner: Questions emerge about success of Israel’s Doha strikes on Hamas leaders
Washington Examiner: Dan Caine: Even Tom Clancy couldn’t envision current threats to US
Washington Examiner: House Oversight takes up DC crime bills on day Trump’s federal takeover expires
Washington Examiner: Leading DC Democrats blast markup of proposed legislation as crime emergency nears expiration
Washington Examiner: Bowser urges House Oversight Committee to reject all 13 bills that would limit DC autonomy
Washington Examiner: Newsom highlights California’s battle with federal government during state of the state address
Washington Examiner: Former CIA Director Burns accuses Trump administration of pursuing a ‘campaign of retribution’
Washington Examiner: NDAA passes House with amendment to repeal Iraq war authorizations
Washington Examiner: House delegation to visit China for first time since 2019
Washington Examiner: Tom Rogan Opinion: Is immigration policy friction bringing Britain to the brink?
AP: Trump Offers Ambiguous Initial Response to Russian Drone Incursion into Poland’s Airspace
Defense News: Russia-Belarus Military Drills Start This Week. Here’s What to Know
Breaking Defense: House Passes NDAA, With $848B Topline and Protections for Ukraine Aid
Defense Scoop: Joint Chiefs Chairman Wants ‘Global Risk Algorithm’ To Help Measure Threats Worldwide
Air Force Times: US Air Force May Keep Minuteman III Nukes Operating Until 2050: Report
Washington Post: National Guard Documents Show Public ‘Fear,’ Veterans’ ‘Shame’ Over DC Presence
The War Zone: USAF’s Quicksink Ship-Killing Smart Bomb Seen in Detail Like Never Before
Task & Purpose: Air Force Test Pilot Picked to Command Year-Long Mars Simulation Mission
Air & Space Forces Magazine: Air Force Backtracks on Boot Height Standards
Air & Space Forces Magazine: SDA’s First Operational Data Satellites Launch Successfully
Air & Space Forces Magazine: Natalie Crawford, Icon of USAF Analysis and Modernization, Dies at 86
Forbes: Opinion: NATO Must Draw a Red Line After Russian Drones Over Poland
THE CALENDAR:
THURSDAY | SEPTEMBER 11
8:30 a.m. Washington Convention Center — Association for Talent Development Government Workforce Conference, with Army Col. Kris Saling, director of innovation and Army talent innovation at the Office of the assistant Army secretary for Manpower and Reserve Affairs https://governmentworkforce.td.org/
8:40 a.m. 180 Greenwich Street, New York, N.Y. — National September 11 Memorial and Museum 24th Anniversary, with Vice President J.D. Vance; and his wife Usha Vance https://911memorialmuseum.brightcovegallery.com
8:50 a.m. Pentagon, 9/11 Memorial — Pentagon 9/11 observance ceremony with President Donald Trump https://www.dvidshub.net/webcast/36733
9:15 a.m. G50 Dirksen — Senate Armed Services Committee hearing to consider the nomination of Marine Gen. Christopher Mahoney to be vice chairman of the joint chiefs of staff https://www.armed-services.senate.gov/hearings
9:30 a.m. — Center for Strategic and International Studies virtual discussion: “Kim, Xi and Putin: The Axis of Upheaval in China,” with former Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Dan Kritenbrink, partner at the Asia Group; former U.S. Ambassador to Korea Harry Harris; Mark Lippert, CSIS Korea chair; and Sydney Seiler, CSIS Korea chair https://www.csis.org/events/kim-xi-and-putin-axis-upheaval
9:45 a.m. 6424 Lincoln Highway, Stoystown, Pa.— National Park Service “Moment of Remembrance” event at the Flight 93 National Memorial, Memorial Plaza, Wall of Names, Stoystown, Pa. https://www.nps.gov/flni/planyourvisit/september-11-events-schedule.htm
12 p.m. 1400 L St. NW — Atlantic Council discussion: “U.S.-Iraq security partnership after Operation Inherent Resolve,” with former U.S. Ambassador to Iraq James Jeffrey; Victoria Taylor, director, Atlantic Council’s Iraq Initiative and Middle East Programs; and Renad Mansour, senior research fellow at Chatham House’s Middle East and North Africa Programme and director of Chatham House Iraq Initiative https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/event/us-iraq-security-partnership
12 p.m. — Washington Institute for Near East Policy virtual forum, “The Abraham Accords at Five Years: Resilience and Roadblocks,” with former Israeli Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates Amir Hayek, nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council; Victoria Coates, vice president, Heritage Foundation’s Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy; former U.S. Ambassador to Jordan Yael Lampert; and Ahdeya al-Sayed, former president, Bahrain Journalists Association https://washingtoninstitute-org.zoom.us/webinar/register
3 p.m. — Center for a New American Security virtual discussion: “Europe with Less U.S.: Preventing Russia Opportunistic Aggression in Europe,” with retired Air Force Gen. Phillip Breedlove, former commander, U.S. European Command and former supreme allied commander Europe; retired Navy Adm. James Foggo, former commander, U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa and former commander, Allied Joint Force Command Naples; Andrea Kendall-Taylor, program director and senior fellow at the CNAS Transatlantic Security Program; and Jim Townsend, adjunct senior fellow at the CNAS Transatlantic Security Program https://www.cnas.org/events/brussels-sprouts-live-understanding-russias-calculus
4 p.m. 400 block of E St. NW, — National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund 9/11 memorial program https://nleomf.org/event/9-11-ceremony-to-honor-the-fallen-2/
FRIDAY | SEPTEMBER 12
8:30 a.m. Washington Convention Center — Billington CyberSecurity Summit, with Douglas “Doug” Matty, chief digital and AI officer at the Pentagon Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office; Matthew “Matt” Turek, deputy director, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Information Innovation Office https://billingtoncybersummit.com
10 a.m. 1775 Massachusetts Ave. NW — Brookings Institution discussion: “U.S.-China Trade Wars,” with Michael Froman, president, Council on Foreign Relations; Suzanne Maloney, vice president and director, Brookings Foreign Policy Program; and Ryan Hass, director, Brookings China Center and senior fellow in the Brookings Foreign Policy Program and Brookings Center for Asia Policy Studies https://www.brookings.edu/events/u-s-china-trade-wars-a-conversation-with-michael-froman/
10:30 a.m. 214 Massachusetts Ave. NE — Heritage Foundation discussion: “Taiwan’s Strategy for Peace, Prosperity, and Partnership with the United States,” with Taiwan Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-Cheng https://www.heritage.org/china/event/taiwans-strategy
THURSDAY | SEPTEMBER 25
11 a.m. — Arms Control Association annual meeting, hosted at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, with former Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif; former Assistant Secretary of State for Arms Control, Verification Mallory Stewart; Senior International/Defense Researcher at RAND Kingston Reif; and Fifth General Secretary of the Friends Committee on National Legislation Bridget Moix https://www.armscontrol.org/2025AnnualMeeting