Belgium to purchase €2.8 million in anti-drone guns from Australia’s DroneShield

Belgium will acquire a new batch of anti-drone guns from the Australian defence company DroneShield under a contract worth approximately €2.8 million. The systems are intended to strengthen protection around airports and military installations against unauthorised drone activity.

DroneShield, a leading Australian defence-technology company, specialises in counter-drone systems. The devices Belgium is purchasing—known as jammer guns—can disable drones by disrupting their communication signals, rather than shooting them down. They emit targeted radio waves that break the link between the drone and its operator, causing the aircraft to land or hover safely. Although they resemble weapons, they are not firearms and do not destroy the drone.

This purchase is part of a broader short-term €50 million investment package and a €500 million long-term plan announced earlier by Defence Minister Theo Francken to improve national security infrastructure.

The government hopes the new counter-drone systems will curb the growing number of airspace intrusions above Belgian airports and military bases. While there are no precise figures yet for 2025, the situation has escalated sharply.

In 2024, Belgium recorded around 30,000 drone incidents, though only two required aircraft to change runways. This year, however, the impact has been far more disruptive: within just a few days, four civilian airports – Brussels Airport, Liège, Ostend, and Antwerp – were forced to temporarily shut down due to drone activity.

Belgian security services increasingly believe that the drone incidents are not accidental, but part of a targeted campaign by Russia. Belgium has recently played a high-profile role in unlocking frozen Russian assets held at Euroclear in Brussels, and intelligence agencies suspect deliberate provocation.

Multiple clues point in that direction. The drones repeatedly appear above strategic military sites, including Kleine-Brogel and Elsenborn, both sensitive locations close to the country’s borders. In several cases, multiple drones were observed flying in formation, and most incidents occur at night—conditions that typically require technical expertise and are difficult for amateur operators.

Although investigators still lack clear visual evidence to definitively identify the drone models involved, security sources say they have several concrete leads. Belgian authorities insist they are not operating in complete uncertainty.