{"id":102610,"date":"2025-11-09T20:34:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-09T20:34:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=102610"},"modified":"2025-11-09T20:34:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-09T20:34:08","slug":"uk-military-to-help-protect-belgium-after-drone-incursions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=102610","title":{"rendered":"UK military to help protect Belgium after drone incursions"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n \t<\/i> Read Time:<\/span>2 Minute, 18 Second <\/div>\n\n <\/div>
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UK military personnel and equipment are being sent to Belgium to help it bolster its defences after drone incursions on its airspace, suspected of being carried out by Russia.<\/p>\n

The new head of the UK military, Sir Richard Knighton, told the BBC\u2019s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg that his Belgian counterpart asked for assistance earlier this week and that kit and personnel were on the way.<\/p>\n

Belgium\u2019s main airport Zavantem\u00a0was forced to close temporarily on Thursday night after drones were spotted nearby. They were also spotted in other locations, including a military base.<\/p>\n

Sir Richard said it was not known if the incursions were by Russia, but added it was \u201cplausible\u201d they had been ordered by Moscow.<\/p>\n

He added that the decision to aid Belgium had been made alongside Defence Secretary John Healey.<\/p>\n

Alongside Nato allies, he added that the UK would help Belgium \u201cby providing our kit and capability\u201d which he said was already being deployed. On Friday, the German defence ministry said it would support Belgium with anti-drone measures after a request from Brussels.<\/p>\n

About 3,000 Brussels Airlines passengers were affected by the disruption, and the carrier said it faced \u201cconsiderable costs\u201d from cancelling or diverting dozens of flights.<\/p>\n

German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius and the Belgian security services have said they suspect Russia, but Belgian Defence Minister Theo Francken has previously admitted there is no accompanying evidence.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt first, drones flying over our military bases were seen as our problem,\u201d Francken said earlier this week.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow it has become a serious threat affecting civilian infrastructure across multiple European countries.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"UK<\/figure>\n

More broadly, Sir Richard said Russia was \u201cthe most pressing threat right now\u201d to Europe.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe illegal invasion of Ukraine has shown the barbaric nature of Russia\u2019s war efforts,\u201d he told the programme.<\/p>\n

He added that\u00a0sabotage\u00a0and\u00a0killings\u00a0had been carried out by Russia on UK soil, and that so-called hybrid warfare is where \u201cwe [The UK] need to strengthen ourselves\u201d.<\/p>\n

In recent months, a number of drone sightings have caused major flight disruptions across Europe, including in Sweden, Norway and Denmark.<\/p>\n

Despite some officials blaming \u201chybrid warfare\u201d on Russia, the Kremlin has denied any involvement.<\/p>\n

Pistorious has suggested the latest sightings could be linked to European Union discussions to\u00a0use frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine\u00a0in the form of a \u20ac140bn loan.<\/p>\n

While there is no public proof of Russia\u2019s involvement, suspicions have been fuelled by\u00a0more serious airspace incursions\u00a0by Russia in Eastern Europe over recent months, involving\u00a0fighter jets\u00a0and larger attack drones.<\/p>\n

The UK has recently sent\u00a0RAF Typhoon jets to take part in defence missions\u00a0over Poland as part of NATO\u2019s\u00a0mission to bolster the eastern flank\u00a0in response to incursions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"UKUK military personnel and equipment are being sent to Belgium to help it bolster its defences after drone incursions on its airspace, suspected of being carried out by Russia.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":102611,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10921,1910,10,9,1893],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-102610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-belgium","category-international","category-politics","category-popular","category-uk"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=102610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102610\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/102611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=102610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=102610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=102610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}