While most reports of drone sightings have been proven false, some appeared “plausible” even despite lack of any evidence, Theo Francken insists
Belgian Defense Minister Theo Francken has defended the costly drone scare, which cost some €50 million (some $ 58.5 million) in emergency spending, and offered a lackluster apology for personally disseminating images purporting to picture 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.
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