Lithuania scrambles fighter jets over radar signal that turned out to be a bird flock

Lithuania's armed forces scrambled fighter jets on Sunday after detecting an unidentified radar signal over Lithuanian territory. The alert turned out to be a false alarm — the object was identified as a large flock of birds.

Lithuanian military officials confirmed the scramble was conducted as a precautionary measure following standard protocols for unidentified aerial contacts. The jets intercepted the signal area and identified the objects as birds before returning to base.

Heightened vigilance in the Baltics

The incident comes amid a broader pattern of heightened air-defence vigilance across the Baltic states. Since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, NATO members Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania have dramatically increased their airspace monitoring and response times. Incidents involving drones, weather balloons, and even bird flocks being confused for potential threats have become more frequent across Northern and Eastern Europe.

Lithuania has been one of the most vocal NATO members calling for strengthened eastern flank defences and has contributed to NATO air policing missions. The country borders the Kaliningrad exclave, a heavily militarised Russian territory, which makes air defence readiness particularly critical.