NATO fighters shot down a drone that had entered Latvian airspace in the early morning hours of 14 August 2026, LSM reported. Two Italian Eurofighter jets based at Lithuania’s Siauliai Air Base and two Turkish F-16 jets from Estonia’s Ämari Air Base were involved in the operation, LSM reported. The drone was destroyed by one of the Italian jets over an unpopulated area in Rugaji parish in the Balvi municipality of northeastern Latvia. Members of the Latvian National Guard (LRZS) are now looking for the drone wreckage. Vilmantas Vitkauskas, director of Lithuania’s National Crisis Management Centre (NKVC), said that the drone most likely changed course over Russian territory or crossed the border from Belarus or Russia, LRT reported. Latvian Defence Minister Raivis Melnis refuted rumours that several drones had been detected. Earlier, Melnis said that Latvia planned to deploy automated anti-drone systems along the country’s entire eastern border by the end of September 2026, LSM reported. In the meantime, Latvia was in talks to buy radar and command systems from an unnamed country, he revealed.
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