Drones were spotted flying over Belgian army bases last weekend.
Belgium’s defense minister voiced alarm on Monday over a string of unidentified drone incursions near a base believed to store U.S. nuclear weapons, saying the flights appeared to be a reconnaissance operation.
Theo Francken said the drones entered the airspace around Kleine Brogel air base in northeast Belgium in two distinct waves on Saturday and Sunday night. According to him, small drones were sent first, apparently to probe the radio frequencies used by Belgian security services, followed later by larger drones that seemed intended to disrupt or confuse personnel on the ground.
“It looks like a spy operation,” Francken told public broadcaster RTBF, adding that he preferred not to publicly speculate on who might be behind it. Last month, drones were also reported over another Belgian military facility near the German border; their operators were never identified.
Russia has been implicated in several recent airspace violations in Estonia and Poland, but the origin of a similar pattern of drone flights reported in Denmark and Germany remains unclear.
