Belgium doubles down on drone defenses following mystery flights

MILAN — Belgium has embarked on a major acquisition push to accelerate the procurement of counter-drone systems, including surveillance radars and drone guns.

The ramp-up is part of the country’s €50 million ($59 million) anti-drone plan following a recent surge in illegal drone overflights near or above airports, military bases, and nuclear-weapons storage sites.

Belgian defense minister Theo Francken announced two contracts this week: one for Saab’s Giraffe 1X surveillance radar and one for portable drone jammers from Australian manufacturer DroneShield.

An undisclosed amount of the Swedish-made Giraffe 1X radar was purchased as part of a contract valued at €9.2 million. The system operates by tracking aerial targets and feeding target data to air-defense systems.

According to the contract information, the radars are to be located in the Halle-Vilvoorde district surrounding the capital Brussels.

Belgium also concluded a €2.8 million deal with Droneshield for handheld drone guns that can detect and jam hostile unmanned aerial systems using artificial intelligence. The guns are also in service in Ukraine.

Francken said the country will receive its first National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System from Norway in the second half of 2027. Belgium plans to acquire ten of these systems from manufacturer Kongsberg together with the Netherlands.

Data published by EuroNews’ The Cube, a fact-checking program based on publicly available reports of drone-related interference at European airports, cases quadrupled between January 2024 to November 2025. The analysis concludes that the most affected country during this time was Belgium.

Many of the European countries that have experienced drone intrusions over the last few months have subsequently been criticized for their security shortfalls.

In a recent interview with Defense News, the chief executive of the Danish defense firm Terma, Henriette H. Thygesen, said that one of the gaps in the response to the incidents was the slow speed in verifying that a given threat is, in fact, a drone

NATO and allied countries are testing counter-drone technologies in field trials such as the U.S.-led Project Flytrap 4.5 series, which is designed to assess scalable defensive systems for rapid procurement and integration into broader air defense frameworks.

A two-week event held last month in Germany brought together troops, procurement teams and industry representatives to evaluate candidate systems against simulated drone threats, including a live-fire engagement.

Citing a classified internal security report, German newspaper Bild has reported that since the beginning of this year there have been 1,955 unidentified drone flights recorded, often over or near military and NATO facilities, in Germany alone.

Elisabeth Gosselin-Malo was a Europe correspondent for Defense News. She covers a wide range of topics related to military procurement and international security, and specializes in reporting on the aviation sector. She is based in Milan, Italy.

米兰——比利时已启动一项大规模采购计划，以加快采购反无人机系统，包括监视雷达和无人机炮。

此次增援是该国耗资 5000 万欧元（5900 万美元）的反无人机计划的一部分，此前，在机场、军事基地和核武器储存场所附近或上空发生的非法无人机飞行活动激增。

比利时国防部长西奥·弗兰肯本周宣布了两项合同：一项是萨博公司的 Giraffe 1X 监视雷达，另一项是澳大利亚制造商 DroneShield 的便携式无人机干扰器。

根据一份价值920万欧元的合同，采购了数量不详的瑞典制造的Giraffe 1X雷达。该系统的工作原理是跟踪空中目标并将目标数据传输给防空系统。

根据合同信息，这些雷达将位于首都布鲁塞尔周围的哈雷-维尔福德区。

比利时还与Droneshield公司达成了一项价值280万欧元的协议，采购可利用人工智能探测和干扰敌方无人机系统的手持式无人机武器。这些武器目前也在乌克兰服役。

弗兰肯表示，比利时将于2027年下半年从挪威接收其首套国家先进地对空导弹系统。比利时计划与荷兰一起从制造商康斯伯格公司采购10套此类系统。

欧洲新闻台旗下事实核查节目“The Cube”发布的数据显示，2024年1月至2025年11月期间，欧洲机场无人机干扰事件数量增加了三倍。该节目基于公开的无人机干扰事件报告进行核查。分析结果表明，在此期间受影响最严重的国家是比利时。

过去几个月里，许多欧洲国家都遭遇了无人机入侵，随后这些国家因安全漏洞而受到批评。

丹麦防务公司泰尔玛（Terma）首席执行官亨丽埃特·H·蒂格森（Henriette H. Thygesen）在最近接受《防务新闻》（Defense News）采访时表示，应对无人机事件的不足之处在于，核实特定威胁是否确系无人机的速度过慢。

北约及其盟国正在实地试验中测试反无人机技术，例如美国主导的“捕蝇草 4.5”系列项目，该项目旨在评估可扩展的防御系统，以便快速采购并整合到更广泛的防空框架中。

上个月在德国举行的为期两周的活动，汇集了部队、采购团队和行业代表，共同评估候选系统在模拟无人机威胁下的性能，其中包括实弹射击演习。

德国《图片报》援引一份机密内部安全报告报道称，自今年年初以来，仅在德国就记录到 1955 起不明无人机飞行事件，这些飞行事件经常发生在军事和北约设施上空或附近。

伊丽莎白·戈斯林-马洛曾任《防务新闻》欧洲通讯员。她的报道涵盖军事采购和国际安全等广泛领域，尤其擅长航空领域的报道。她常驻意大利米兰。