On 14 September 2026, the Polish military located and recovered a military unmanned aerial vehicle from the Baltic Sea. The drone was found near the beach in Rusinowo, close to Jarosławiec in Poland’s West Pomeranian Voivodeship. According to preliminary findings, the UAV is of Russian origin, while media reports suggest that it may be a Gerbera drone.
Polish Defence Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz confirmed the discovery. The military located the object near the beach in Rusinowo and subsequently recovered it from the Baltic Sea.
Preliminary inspections indicate that the recovered aircraft is a military UAV of Russian origin. The area was secured, and the relevant Polish authorities began examining the recovered equipment.
Is it a Russian Gerbera drone?
According to information reported following the discovery, the UAV most likely belongs to the Gerbera family of Russian drones. At this stage, however, it is important to distinguish between the confirmed Russian origin of the aircraft and the identification of its exact model, which remains subject to further examination.
The Gerbera is a Russian unmanned aerial vehicle that can be used as a relatively inexpensive decoy during large-scale drone attacks. Such systems can help overwhelm or complicate air-defence operations by forcing radars and air-defence units to detect, track and classify numerous airborne targets simultaneously.
Gerbera drones have previously been associated with incidents involving Polish airspace. Drones of this type were among the UAVs reported following the major violation of Polish airspace during the night of 9–10 September 2025, when numerous Russian drones entered Polish territory during attacks against Ukraine.
Drone recovered directly from the Baltic Sea
The location of the latest discovery makes the incident particularly noteworthy. Unlike previous cases in which remnants of Russian UAVs were primarily discovered on land, this drone was recovered from the Baltic Sea near the Polish coastline.
It has not yet been publicly established how long the aircraft had been in the water or exactly how it reached the Polish coast. It has also not been confirmed whether the drone was carrying explosives.
A detailed technical examination of the recovered UAV could help investigators determine its precise model, equipment and configuration, as well as potentially provide information about its origin and flight path.
Another security concern for Poland
The discovery of a Russian military drone on the Baltic coast is particularly significant in the context of previous incidents involving Russian UAVs.
In September 2025, during a major Russian attack against Ukraine, Polish airspace was repeatedly violated by unmanned aircraft. Polish and allied radar systems tracked numerous objects, while defensive measures were taken against those considered capable of posing a threat.
The latest discovery also demonstrates that security challenges involving unmanned aerial systems are not necessarily limited to Poland’s eastern border. Establishing how a Russian military UAV reached the Baltic coast will therefore be an important part of the investigation.
The growing importance of counter-drone systems
Recent conflicts have demonstrated that unmanned aerial vehicles have become one of the most important elements of modern warfare. Small and relatively inexpensive platforms can be employed for reconnaissance, strikes against infrastructure and military targets, electronic operations or as decoys intended to engage significantly more expensive air-defence assets.
As a result, the importance of multilayered Counter-UAS (C-UAS) solutions continues to increase. Effective protection can combine radar detection, electro-optical and infrared sensors, electronic warfare systems and various methods of physically neutralising hostile UAVs.
The discovery of a suspected Gerbera on Poland’s Baltic coast is another reminder that modern airspace protection requires not only systems capable of detecting conventional aircraft and missiles, but also technologies designed to rapidly detect, identify and counter small, inexpensive and potentially difficult-to-detect unmanned platforms.