Overview
- Five drones were detected around 7:30 p.m. Thursday over the Île Longue facility near Brest, the gendarmerie told AFP.
- Base security deployed counter‑drone and search measures, and naval fusiliers fired multiple shots in an effort to neutralize the devices.
- Authorities have not confirmed whether any drones were brought down, and initial requests for comment from the maritime prefecture and prosecutors went unanswered.
- Île Longue is the maintenance hub for France’s four nuclear ballistic‑missile submarines, with permanent protection by about 120 maritime gendarmes working alongside fusiliers marins.
- A drone was reported over the Crozon peninsula in mid‑November without entering a military site, and the incident fits a wider rise in drone activity near sensitive locations across Europe.