Unidentified drone spotted over strategically important NATO base – Spiegel

On the evening of Wednesday, October 8, an unknown drone was spotted flying over the strategically important NATO airbase Geilenkirchen in Germany. This was reported in an internal memo to the reported magazine, and later the incident was confirmed by a spokesperson for the facility.

According to media reports, the suspicious aircraft was spotted shortly after 19:00 (20:00 Kyiv time) in the no-fly zone around the base.

According to an internal document, the drone flew for about a minute at a low altitude above the airbase runway.

The military police immediately reported the incident to their civilian counterparts – an alert was put out over the facility, law enforcement officers went to the site and searched the territory of the large base, but were unable to find either the drone or information about the alleged operator, the note says.

Nevertheless, it was ordered to "strengthen security measures," Spiegel adds.

On Thursday, a spokesman for the air base confirmed that after the UAV was detected by the sensor system, the area around the air base was immediately inspected, but nothing was found. At the same time, it is also possible that it could have been a false alarm, the media reports.

The base in Geilenkirchen plays an important role in monitoring NATO's eastern flank. Several large AWACS reconnaissance aircraft are based at the facility, which the Alliance uses to intensively monitor the airspace in the east, as unidentified drones are constantly infiltrating it.

Because of its importance, this air base is one of the military installations that is heavily guarded by the German Armed Forces. To this end, the military has few but effective sensor systems that can detect even small UAVs and shoot them down if necessary. However, the systems have a relatively short range, so they are only suitable for protecting the base itself.

• On October 5, the head of the German Defense Ministry said that drones over Germany have not yet posed a specific threat.
• On October 8, the German Cabinet of Ministers approved a new law that allow the police to shoot down drones if they violate the country's airspace.