Overview

• A Belgian private anti-drone system on a test setup detected fifteen drones over the Elsenborn military base overnight, triggering an official investigation without public attribution.
• Dutch defence minister Ruben Brekelmans described the sighting as part of a worrying pattern but cautioned that unexplained drones should not automatically prompt a military response.
• Experts and journalists urged rapid deployment of tools that can detect and identify low-flying drones, pointing to lessons from Ukraine and Finland and the need to separate hostile from lawful operations in dense airspace.
• Dutch authorities reiterated a tiered response in which police and local officials address most drone reports, with Defence providing capabilities such as jamming, remote takeover, or kinetic defeat only for serious threats.
• Recent cases range from airport disruptions in Denmark to the September interception of unarmed drones over Poland by F‑35s, while some alerts have involved hobbyists or misidentified objects like balloons.