Drones Repeatedly Sighted Over Bundeswehr Patriot Maintenance Base in Mechernich

Starting around 10 p.m. on the night of Thursday, August 6 into Friday, August 7, security surveillance at the Bundeswehr base in Mechernich (North Rhine-Westphalia) reported two drones over the facility, with a total of six overflights logged between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. Already-alerted Euskirchen district police officers observed at least one overflight themselves. Mechernich houses Europe's only maintenance and repair site for Patriot air-defense missile systems and a high-security underground storage facility for military hardware. Military police (Feldjäger) and local police opened investigations. The German Joint Force Command said the incident fits a pattern of suspected Russian reconnaissance activity, coming two days after an explosive-laden drone was found at Leipzig/Halle Airport; US officials had assessed that earlier device to be of likely Russian origin.