Unidentified Drone Flies Over French Ammunition Plant Twice in One Week
French authorities have launched a formal investigation after an unidentified drone twice breached restricted airspace over a military-grade gunpowder facility operated by Eurenco in southwestern France.
The Gaze reports this, referring to BFM TV.
The first illegal overflight took place on the evening of November 10, followed by another incident on November 12 above the company’s plant in Bergerac.
Eurenco has already filed a criminal complaint and is preparing an additional one after the latest intrusion.
Anne-Cécile Dumonteil, the Bergerac prosecutor, confirmed that the matter concerns the “deliberate overflight of a prohibited zone,” noting that the case has been handed over to local police. Despite a rapid response from national law-enforcement units, the drone’s operator has so far not been located.
France’s head of air defense and air operations, General Marc Le Bouil, told lawmakers on November 12 that the aircraft was likely a commercially available model such as a DJI drone.
He emphasized that counter-drone investigations require a high level of discretion so as not to expose France’s monitoring and interception capabilities.
Eurenco, Europe’s largest producer of military powders and explosives, runs major manufacturing sites in France, Sweden, and Belgium.
The Bergerac plant, capable of producing up to 1,200 tons of gunpowder annually for the French armed forces, reopened this year amid Europe’s accelerated effort to rebuild and expand its munitions base.
As The Gaze reported earlier, the United Kingdom has deployed military personnel and anti-drone systems to Belgium following a string of drone incursions.
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