Belgium’s defense minister says drone flights near an air base could be part of a spying operation

BRUSSELS (AP) — Belgium’s defense minister expressed concern on Monday about a series of unidentified drone flights over the weekend near a military base where U.S. nuclear weapons are stored, saying that they seem to be part of a spying operation.

Defense Minister Theo Francken confirmed that drones had flown into the area near the Kleine Brogel air base in northeast Belgium in two phases on Saturday and Sunday night.

The first phase involved “small drones to test the radio frequencies” of Belgian security services, then later came “big drones to destabilize the area and people,” Francken told public broadcaster RTBF.

“It resembles a spy operation. By whom, I don’t know. I have a few ideas but I’m going to be careful” about speculating, he said. Last month, several drones were spotted above another Belgian military base near the German border. The operators were not identified.

Russia has been blamed for a number of airspace violations, notably in Estonia and Poland, in recent months. But the perpetrators of a series of mysterious drone flights in Denmark and Germany have been harder to pin down.

A late evening drone sighting at Berlin’s Brandenburg airport on Friday suspended flights for nearly two hours. It was not clear who was responsible.

Francken ruled out that the weekend drone flights in Belgium might have been a prank.

He said that the security services’ “jammer didn’t work because they tested our radio frequency, and they changed frequency. They have their own frequencies. An amateur doesn’t know how to do that.”

Asked why it wasn’t possible to shoot the drones down, Francken said: “When they’re over a military base we can shoot the drones down. When it’s nearby, we have to be very careful because they can fall on a house, a car, a person. That’s completely different.”

This can pose legal challenges too. “It’s not entirely clear. We have to clarify the legal grounds,” he said.

Francken lamented that Belgium “is chasing after the threat” posed by such drone flights. “We should have bought air defense systems five or 10 years ago,” that can deal with drones, he said.