Update: Eindhoven Airport Reopens After Drone Incursions

Update: 23 November

The airport at Eindhoven, The Netherlands, was closed for hours on the evening of 22 November due to UAVs flying across the airfield. The airport had reopened by 23.00 hours. The airport is used by both military and civilian operators.

Prior text begins:

Security at The Netherlands’ Volkel Air Base, located near the German border, detected drones operating in restricted airspace between 19.00 and 21.00 hours on 21 November. Dutch Air Force personnel employed ground-based weapons systems to engage the unmanned aircraft. The drones subsequently departed the area and were not recovered. The Koninklijke Marechaussee (Royal Military Police) has initiated a criminal investigation.

The Volkel event follows a series of unauthorized drone incursions over critical Dutch infrastructure, raising concerns about potential foreign surveillance or reconnaissance activities. This incident in particular raises concerns because Volkel Air Base houses U.S. nuclear weapons.

Volkel Air Base incident only the latest

On 17 November personnel at the port of Terneuzen in Zeeland province observed between 12 and 20 drones operating over the port area and the Dow chemical plant—locations designated as no-fly zones due to their classification as critical infrastructure. Johan Bresseleers, spokesperson for North Sea Port, characterized the sighting as anomalous, noting that drone operators are obligated to register flights with port authorities in advance, and the observed quantity far exceeded any registered activity.

These incidents constitute part of a broader pattern of unexplained drone activity affecting Western European security infrastructure. Additional sightings have been documented near the NATO command center in Brunssum, Maastricht Aachen Airport, and Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport, with analogous incidents reported in Germany and Belgium. The Coast Guard had previously observed multiple drones near Oostkapelle on 12 November and the operators could not be identified.

Dutch authorities have declined to speculate publicly regarding potential state-actor involvement. Romania scrambled military aircraft during the same period when a drone penetrated eight kilometers into Romanian airspace before disappearing from radar, while Poland temporarily closed two eastern airports to facilitate military operations.

The proliferation of unattributed drone activity over military installations and critical infrastructure represents a significant challenge to conventional airspace management protocols, particularly given the difficulty of tracking low-altitude unmanned systems among the tens of thousands of registered and unregistered drones operating throughout the Netherlands.