Field report: Training at Russia's doorstep, NATO readies for a drone-ruled battlefield
VORU COUNTY, Estonia — In southeast Estonia lies a lake-studded, woodland region locals call Missomaa, which makes up the country's three-way borderland with Latvia and Russia.
Its innocuous-looking woods are overlaid by cameras and sensors feeding data to a British unit stationed nearby, informing their first-person-view (FPV) drone operators about an "enemy" vehicle closing in.
Corey, an operator of the British 2nd Battalion, Royal Regiment of Scotland (2 Scots), simulates a strike by doing a low fly-by and landing his drone next to the vehicle.
The exercise takes place just a short drive from the Luhamaa checkpoint at the Estonian-Russian border.
This is only a small part of Spring Storm 2026, Estonia's flagship military drills meant to prepare the country's forces and its allies for a possible Russian invasion — a prospect seen as increasingly realistic since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Its innocuous-looking woods are overlaid by cameras and sensors feeding data to a British unit stationed nearby, informing their first-person-view (FPV) drone operators about an "enemy" vehicle closing in.
Corey, an operator of the British 2nd Battalion, Royal Regiment of Scotland (2 Scots), simulates a strike by doing a low fly-by and landing his drone next to the vehicle.
The exercise takes place just a short drive from the Luhamaa checkpoint at the Estonian-Russian border.
This is only a small part of Spring Storm 2026, Estonia's flagship military drills meant to prepare the country's forces and its allies for a possible Russian invasion — a prospect seen as increasingly realistic since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
