The protection of facilities from drone flights, a headache for Europe
Drone flights over airports, industrial facilities, and sensitive infrastructure are increasing in Europe, but authorities, who see Russia’s hand in these, are facing difficulties in detection, jamming, and shooting them down in peacetime.
The German government announced yesterday that it will allow the police to shoot down threatening drones, following a multitude of flights over airports.
In France, drones have flown over military facilities in Mourmelon in recent weeks, and in Denmark and Norway, drones flew over airports forcing air traffic to be halted. In Belgium, the local director of the defense industry Thales told Politico that there are currently more drones than there were two months ago.
“Two incidents may be due to coincidence. But three, five, ten? These are gray zone operations against Europe,” said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen today.
Many European officials accuse Moscow of being behind these hybrid operations taking place in countries that support Ukraine and do not share borders with Russia or Belarus.
“At this stage, it is only meant to provoke us. It is part of the hostile actions of the Russians trying to humiliate us,” comments a French source.
It is also difficult to prove Moscow’s involvement. In France, “for the past few weeks, there has been an increase in drone flights over military facilities, industrial units, and other sensitive infrastructure. But we cannot attribute them to anyone specific,” according to the same source.
The legal framework
Over the military facilities of Mourmelon, for example, which are located over an area larger than the city of Paris, “we can wonderfully have a father who buys a Chinese drone and does not integrate the ‘no-fly zones’ into his system, who does not read the notice and goes to a nearby forest on the weekend and finds himself in a restricted area,” says Thierry Bertier, scientific director of the Professional Federation of Security Drones Drone4Sec.
Dealing with these drones is not easy
The points that need protection are many (military facilities, sensitive industrial units such as those involved in European support for Ukraine against Russia, energy stations, critical transport infrastructure) and there are legal restrictions.
In France, “only one state agency can neutralize a drone,” a security source reminds, which excludes resorting to private security companies that use, for example, jamming systems. And in Germany, the government must clarify the legal ambiguity to allow the police to shoot down threatening drones.
Also, when a drone is detected, how to neutralize it and accept the consequences or damages in countries that are officially at peace?
“We are no longer fully at peace because we are simultaneously in peacetime and not so far from conflict,” according to Admiral Nicolas Vaujour, head of the French Navy, expressing his dissatisfaction that there are obstacles to the development of defensive means. “At a given moment, are we defending ourselves or not?”
Jamming is an effective means, but difficult in populated areas. “We risk creating jamming in many things,” according to Thierry Bertier.
“Jamming has a disadvantage. It prevents you from watching the PSG-OM match,” joked Admiral Vaujour during the Strategic Meetings of the Mediterranean (Rencontres stratégiques de la Méditerranée).
As for shooting down the drone, firing at it or intercepting it with another drone carries risks. At the end of September in Denmark, authorities decided not to shoot them down for the safety of citizens.
The fall of a drone can cause damage. Shooting it down with a firearm requires creating a wall of bullets, as Ukrainian soldiers do against Russian drones.
“It is very difficult to hit an aerial drone,” says a sailor on a French frigate behind a 12.7 machine gun during a naval exercise in the Mediterranean. Its weapon has a range of 900 meters against drones and fires 500 rounds per minute. These include tracer rounds that allow for adjusting bursts to the target. A police officer with such a weapon on his shoulder would face more difficulties. (10/9/25)
