{"id":4369,"date":"2025-11-10T11:23:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-10T11:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/national\/raf-to-help-protect-belgium-from-suspected-russian-drones-disrupting-at-military-bases-and-airports\/"},"modified":"2026-02-08T05:18:30","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T05:18:30","slug":"raf-to-help-protect-belgium-from-suspected-russian-drones-disrupting-at-military-bases-and-airports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/national\/raf-to-help-protect-belgium-from-suspected-russian-drones-disrupting-at-military-bases-and-airports\/","title":{"rendered":"RAF to help protect Belgium from suspected Russian drones disrupting at military bases and airports"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By Sean Rayment<\/em><\/p>\n

Britain is sending a specialist Royal Air Force regiment counter-drone unit equipped with advanced technology to Belgium after repeated incursions by \u201cuncrewed aerial systems\u201d over the country\u2019s airports and military bases.<\/p>\n

Sir Richard Knighton, the head of the UK\u2019s armed forces, said the British military would provide \u201cour people, our equipment\u201d to support Belgium, though he was careful to note that \u201cwe don\u2019t yet know\u201d the origin of the drones.<\/p>\n

\u201cRussia is the biggest threat right now, and their illegal invasion of Ukraine has shown what they are capable of,\u201d he added. \u201cRussia is something we should be concerned about. We know they are carrying out sabotage and waging a hybrid war against us.\u201d<\/p>\n

The decision follows a formal request for assistance from Belgium. Flights were disrupted at Brussels and Li\u00e8ge airports last Thursday after unidentified drone sightings, which were also reported over military bases and nuclear facilities in the country.<\/p>\n

Russia has been identified as the most likely culprit, the latest in a string of incidents across northern Europe this autumn.<\/p>\n

Knighton said that even without definitive proof of who was behind the drone flights, he was \u201cvery happy\u201d to act in support of a NATO ally.<\/p>\n

John Healey, the Defence Secretary, said: \u201cWhen our NATO allies call, we step up. Belgium requested urgent support to counter rogue drone activity at their military bases, so I have directed a small team of RAF specialists to deploy immediately. As hybrid threats grow, our strength lies in our alliances and our collective resolve to defend, deter and protect our critical infrastructure and airspace.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Germany announced last week that it had sent specialist assistance, and Belgian authorities said France had followed suit. The United Kingdom\u2019s support is expected to come from the RAF\u2019s dedicated counter-uncrewed aerial systems unit.<\/p>\n

Last week Boris Pistorius, the German defence minister, said he believed the drone incursions were \u201clikely connected with the fight over the use of Russian frozen assets held by Belgium\u201d. EU and UK politicians have been discussing how to release Russian central bank assets, held mostly in Belgium, to support a \u20ac140 billion (\u00a3120 billion) loan to Ukraine.<\/p>\n

France and Germany have also deployed specialist units to defend the sites and counter the drone threats.<\/p>\n

Specialised air force units of the German military have been deployed to secure airspace around the Kleine Brogel military base after drones were thought to have crossed from Germany.<\/p>\n

Instead of using radio frequencies, the drones use global positioning satellites, which allows them to be controlled on pre-programmed operational targets from as far as 125 miles away.<\/p>\n

Alliance intelligence services have conceded that the drones, potentially operated by freelance criminals recruited by Russian intelligence networks via messaging apps, are being deployed to intimidate Belgium into halting the transfer of \u20ac140 billion in frozen Russian assets to fund Ukraine\u2019s defence.<\/p>\n

Pistorius said on Friday: \u201cWe all see this connection. The Belgians too. This is a measure aimed at spreading insecurity, at fearmongering in Belgium. \u2018Do not dare touch the frozen assets.\u2019 This cannot be interpreted any other way.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Sean Rayment Britain is sending a specialist Royal Air Force regiment counter-drone unit equipped with advanced technology to Belgium after repeated incursions by \u201cuncrewed aerial systems\u201d over the country\u2019s airports and military bases. Sir Richard Knighton, the head of the UK\u2019s armed forces, said the British military would provide \u201cour people, our equipment\u201d to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4370,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-4369","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-russia"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/national\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/national\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/national\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/national\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/national\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4369"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/national\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4369\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4371,"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/national\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4369\/revisions\/4371"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/national\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/national\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/national\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/national\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}