Lithuania scrambled to action on Sunday and closed the airport at Vilnius when radar readings indicated that drones were swarming overhead. Authorities contacted NATO, as well, urging them to send a fighter jet.
A jet flew in from Siauliai in the northern region of the Baltic state. Italian military personnel are currently stationed there as part of the Baltic Air Defense Mission. Upon further evaluation, however, it turned out that the menacing drones were just a flock of birds.
Reuters reports that "the air alert was lifted and the airport reopened within 38 minutes, after the NATO jet made a visual identification."
The incident brings to mind the 1983 song by German pop sensation Nena, who sang about buying balloons, releasing them, and sparking an international incident. Much like the Lithuanian authorities fooled by birds, the officials in the song mistake balloons for bombs and set off a chain reaction to destroy an entire city. The English lyrics read:
You and I in a little toy shop
Buy a bag of balloons with the money we've got
Set them free at the break of dawn
'Til one by one they were gone
Back at base bugs in the software
Flash the message: "something's out there!"
Floating in the summer sky
Ninety-nine red balloons go by
Ninety-nine red balloons
Floating in the summer sky
Panic bells, it's red alert
There's something here from somewhere else
The war machine springs to life
Opens up one eager eye
Focusing it on the sky
Where ninety-nine red balloons go by
Ninety-nine Decision Street
Ninety-nine ministers meet
To worry, worry, super scurry
Call the troops out in a hurry
This is what we've waited for
This is it, boys, this is war
The president is on the line
As ninety-nine red balloons go by
Ninety-nine knights of the air
Ride super high-tech jet fighters
Everyone's a Super Hero
Everyone's a Captain Kirk
With orders to identify
To clarify and classify
Scramble in the summer sky
Ninety-nine red balloons go by
As ninety-nine red balloons go by
Ninety-nine dreams I have had
In every one a red balloon
It's all over and I'm standing pretty
In this dust that was a city
If I could find a souvenir
Just to prove the world was here
And here is a red balloon
I think of you, and let it go
The English version of the song hit number 1 in the UK, Ireland, and Canada, and number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in America. The German version topped charts in West Germany, Australia, Austria, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, Switzerland, and others.
"On initial radar readings, marks left by birds and drones can be similar," said Lithuania's National Crisis Management Centre.
There have been concerns, the outlet reports, about military drones from the Russia-Ukraine war wandering across into the airspace of Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania as these nations resist getting involved in the war.
According to the Kyiv Post, a Russian drone veered into Romanian airspace for about 31 miles on September 8, causing two F-18s to scramble, though the drone managed to evade them and crash in Moldova. That border crossing took place while NATO was working on an air surveillance and defense exercise nearby, the outlet reports.
The Russia-Ukraine war has made great use of drone warfare, with each side targeting and launching drones that are propelled onto their targets. With these weapons, Ukraine has been able to strike military bases, oil refineries, supply lines, logistics hubs, and other targets. Russia, too, has made use of their Shahed drones, manufactured by Iran.
Drone warfare is also at play in the US-Iran war, where Iran has used their drones to attack military bases, killing US personnel and destroying infrastructure.
Graphic made with Grok AI.
A jet flew in from Siauliai in the northern region of the Baltic state. Italian military personnel are currently stationed there as part of the Baltic Air Defense Mission. Upon further evaluation, however, it turned out that the menacing drones were just a flock of birds.
Reuters reports that "the air alert was lifted and the airport reopened within 38 minutes, after the NATO jet made a visual identification."
The incident brings to mind the 1983 song by German pop sensation Nena, who sang about buying balloons, releasing them, and sparking an international incident. Much like the Lithuanian authorities fooled by birds, the officials in the song mistake balloons for bombs and set off a chain reaction to destroy an entire city. The English lyrics read:
You and I in a little toy shop
Buy a bag of balloons with the money we've got
Set them free at the break of dawn
'Til one by one they were gone
Back at base bugs in the software
Flash the message: "something's out there!"
Floating in the summer sky
Ninety-nine red balloons go by
Ninety-nine red balloons
Floating in the summer sky
Panic bells, it's red alert
There's something here from somewhere else
The war machine springs to life
Opens up one eager eye
Focusing it on the sky
Where ninety-nine red balloons go by
Ninety-nine Decision Street
Ninety-nine ministers meet
To worry, worry, super scurry
Call the troops out in a hurry
This is what we've waited for
This is it, boys, this is war
The president is on the line
As ninety-nine red balloons go by
Ninety-nine knights of the air
Ride super high-tech jet fighters
Everyone's a Super Hero
Everyone's a Captain Kirk
With orders to identify
To clarify and classify
Scramble in the summer sky
Ninety-nine red balloons go by
As ninety-nine red balloons go by
Ninety-nine dreams I have had
In every one a red balloon
It's all over and I'm standing pretty
In this dust that was a city
If I could find a souvenir
Just to prove the world was here
And here is a red balloon
I think of you, and let it go
The English version of the song hit number 1 in the UK, Ireland, and Canada, and number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in America. The German version topped charts in West Germany, Australia, Austria, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, Switzerland, and others.
"On initial radar readings, marks left by birds and drones can be similar," said Lithuania's National Crisis Management Centre.
There have been concerns, the outlet reports, about military drones from the Russia-Ukraine war wandering across into the airspace of Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania as these nations resist getting involved in the war.
According to the Kyiv Post, a Russian drone veered into Romanian airspace for about 31 miles on September 8, causing two F-18s to scramble, though the drone managed to evade them and crash in Moldova. That border crossing took place while NATO was working on an air surveillance and defense exercise nearby, the outlet reports.
The Russia-Ukraine war has made great use of drone warfare, with each side targeting and launching drones that are propelled onto their targets. With these weapons, Ukraine has been able to strike military bases, oil refineries, supply lines, logistics hubs, and other targets. Russia, too, has made use of their Shahed drones, manufactured by Iran.
Drone warfare is also at play in the US-Iran war, where Iran has used their drones to attack military bases, killing US personnel and destroying infrastructure.
Graphic made with Grok AI.
