Royal Air Force jets have reported close calls with two unidentified drones this year, with the incidents occurring just days apart during simulated air combat training and an air-to-air refuelling exercise over the North Sea. The RAF reported the sightings to police, and several different external investigations are understood to be underway.
Incidents over the North Sea
The first near-miss took place on February 18, when an RAF Airbus Voyager tanker was refuelling a Typhoon fighter jet off Cromer, Norfolk. The unidentified object was seen at 17,000ft, more than 40 times the legal height limit for commercial drones. It passed so close to the tanker that its pilot instinctively ducked.
The second incident occurred on February 23, when a Typhoon was practising dogfights with another jet about 30 miles off Humberside. Its pilot spotted a black circular object, similar in size to a car tyre, pass overhead. The object was said to have passed around 300ft above the Typhoon.
Altitude raises suspicions
Drones are normally legally barred from flying higher than 400 feet. There is no evidence linking the sightings to hostile powers, but the reported drones were operating at an altitude far above levels reachable by most commercially available craft. Neither showed up on radar.
Any private drone operator entering the RAF's training areas off the east coast would have to obtain prior permission from military authorities first, meaning the drones could have been controlled by a potentially hostile state.
Wider drone surveillance concerns
The incidents come as fears mount over hostile powers using drones to spy on the West. Weeks later, US armed forces were put on high alert after unidentified drones were spotted at Fort McNair, a military outpost in Washington DC where senior US government officials live. The RAF encounters also took place days before the start of the US war with Iran.
Earlier this year, defence experts said that drones spotted over US air bases in Norfolk and Suffolk were linked to a Russian ship stationed off the coast. The Kremlin has previously been accused of waging a drone surveillance campaign over military bases in the UK and Europe.
A report by the International Institute for Strategic Studies said the drone campaign occurred between August 2024 and February 2026. It found that the drones were likely to have been launched from the Kremlin's so-called "shadow fleet" of oil tankers transporting sanctioned fuel. The report found that Russian intelligence had waged the drone campaign "with substantial impunity... representing both a series of tactical successes for the Kremlin and a strategic failure of allied air defence".
Incidents included drones flying low over RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk, RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire and at least two other air force bases in England which are shared by the US.
