Belgian Defense Minister Defends Drone Scare Response Amid Criticism

Belgian Defense Minister Theo Francken has defended the drone scare which gripped the country last year and cost some €50 million ($58.5 million) in emergency spending, offering a lackluster apology for personally disseminating images purporting to show the UAVs, which turned out to be false.

The drone craze gripped the country, as well as several other EU nations, late last year with numerous sightings of mysterious UAVs reported from military and critical infrastructure sites. The Belgian government declared an emergency situation over the sightings and swiftly allocated €50 million for anti-drone procurement.

The scare prompted allegations of Russian involvement, yet no evidence to back up such claims, as well as to prove the very existence of the elusive aircraft, has ever emerged. Moscow at the time dismissed the “drone hysteria” as paranoia.

The drone affair was explored by VRT News’ program Pano, which reignited the controversy over the drones and the government’s handling of the crisis. According to the documentary, in several instances the alleged UAVs turned out to be police helicopters. The investigation also raised questions over emergency spending, pointing at inflated pricing allegations in multi-million contracts awarded without any due public tender process.

Francken was grilled over Pano’s revelations on Wednesday in Parliament’s Defense Select Committee. The minister defended the handling of the scare, yet acknowledged that many of the more than 550 reported sightings turned out to be false.

The defense chief cited findings by the country’s military intelligence, which claimed that at least 42 out of 250 drone sightings over military barracks were legitimate. While no physical evidence has been collected, there was “no other plausible explanation than a drone” for them, he claimed.

“Anyone who claims today that there were no drones is therefore ignoring the findings of our own intelligence service. And let’s be honest: as long as you don’t have the means to detect and neutralize drones, it stands to reason that you cannot immediately produce physical evidence,” Francken said.

The minister also offered a lackluster apology for his role in fueling the scare, admitting it had been “painful” that he personally circulated images of alleged drones that turned out to be false. In particular, Francken disseminated an image of an aircraft above Brussels Airport, which turned out to be a police helicopter.