The French military launched anti-drone measures after detecting five unauthorized drones flying over a base housing nuclear ballistic submarines in northwestern France on Thursday.
The base, located on the peninsular of Ile Longue off the coast of Brittany, is used to store France’s four nuclear ballistic submarines, according to AFP.
The Atlantic Maritime Prefecture, a French government department, is responsible for protecting this part of the coast. Its spokesperson, Guillaume Le Rasle, told AFP that sensitive infrastructure was not threatened, but that the drone violation was “intended to alarm the public.”
As per AFP and Le Monde, a counter-drone and search operation was launched. The marine rifle battalion responsible for protecting the base reportedly opened fire, though it is not known whether any of the drones were shot down.
Reports of a drone incident off Ireland’s west coast on Monday bear a striking resemblance to this one. After crossing President Volodymyr Zelensky’s flight path into Dublin Airport moments after his plane had passed, four or five drones are said to have circled the LÉ William Butler Yeats, an Irish naval vessel secretly deployed off Dublin’s coast as part of the security arrangements for Zelensky’s visit.
The drones in Ireland reportedly hovered above the vessel with their lights on as if “they wanted to be seen.”
The incidents are part of a wider pattern of airspace violations by drones across Europe since Sept. 10, when 19 drones crossed into Polish airspace from Belarus. The Kremlin has generally denied responsibility for the violations, despite compelling evidence in some cases and heated condemnation by European leaders.
Le Rasle, however, said that “it is too early to determine” the origins of the drones which flew over Ile Longue on Thursday night.
The Atlantic Maritime Prefecture announced on Friday that a judicial investigation into the incident will be opened by the military prosecutor’s office in Rennes.