EU Commission to take steps to improve drone detection capabilities

BRUSSELS, Feb 11 (Reuters) - ‌The European ​Commission ​will work to improve Europe's drone detection capabilities and propose ensuring registration and ‌identification requirements, the bloc's executive said in ⁠a new action plan published Wednesday.

The plan, which focuses ‌on supporting and encouraging ‌member states to act together, comes after drone sightings last year fuelled security concerns and ​caused disruptions, including at airports in Copenhagen, Munich and Brussels.

Those incidents followed the incursion ⁠of some 20 Russian drones into Polish airspace in September.

"This malicious or irresponsible ​use of drones affects the protection of critical infrastructure, also our external borders, ​ports, transport hubs and public ‌spaces," European Commission Executive Vice President Henna Virkkunen told reporters, adding that ⁠Europe must adapt rules so that drones can be identified and tracked.

The plan envisions strengthening counter-drone testing ⁠capacity, creating an "EU Trusted Drone" label to identify secure ​equipment and launching a call for interested countries to team up on public procurement of counter-drone systems, the ‌Commission said in a statement.

"Malicious drones connected to our 5G network should be ‌quickly identified, tracked and disrupted. And not ⁠connected drones can be ‌detected with cellular ​sensing," Virkkunen said.

(Reporting by Lili Bayer and Andrew Gray; Editing by Benoit Van ‌Overstraeten)

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