Drones Over French Nuclear Base: Investigation Launched

December 6, 2025December 6, 2025

On Thursday evening, drones over French nuclear base Île Longue near Brest triggered a major security alert. According to Agence France-Presse (AFP), 5 UAVs of unknown origin appeared in the base area and technical means detected them around 7:30 PM. After which the base security consisting of 130 military gendarmes and a marine infantry unit went on alert.

As far as we can understand, they managed to detect the drones visually as well. Weather conditions — clear sky and decent moonlight — allowed them to do this even without technical means. Everyone who later referenced AFP writes that they opened fire on the drones, but the original source directly emphasizes that firearms weren’t used. Instead, they employed active counter-drone defense measures. Whatever that was, for perhaps the first time in Europe, they started actively fighting drones.

France’s Nuclear Deterrent at Risk

And overall, there’s nowhere left to delay, since Île Longue houses the base of France’s strategic nuclear submarine fleet. In total, the French fleet has ten nuclear submarines — six multipurpose submarines of the “Suffren” class and four missile carriers of the “Triomphant” class: Le Triomphant, Le Téméraire, Le Vigilant, Le Terrible. Each submarine carries 16 M51 ballistic missiles with multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles, each with up to 6 TN-75 warheads, each with a yield of up to 150 kt.

Open sources indicate that France practiced constant patrol of at least one submarine in the launch area to ensure a “retaliatory strike” under any circumstances. If this practice holds true for the current situation, then 3 out of 4 missile carriers are precisely at the Île Longue base. This explains the attitude toward any security challenges concerning this location. And what’s important here is that Europeans, for the first time, stopped merely observing drones. They made an attempt to either destroy the devices or neutralize them with electronic warfare means.

Investigation Underway

Following this fact, the Rennes prosecutor’s office already launched an investigation. However, as of now, they aren’t sharing any details about what they’ve managed to discover. At least the prosecutor’s representative — the one responsible for military-related incidents — stated that the investigation is taking measures to identify those behind the incident and to question them about the purpose of launching the drones. He also reported that there was no direct threat to the base during this event.

Well, local experts write that this couldn’t have been a random freak’s prank, since the drones launched in dark hours and clearly with the goal of minimizing the possibility of their detection. Moreover, launching five UAVs at once can in no way resemble an innocent, stupid prank by local idlers. Taking into account that neither the military nor the gendarmes reported intercepting at least one of the devices, someone well-prepared acted, and certainly someone who has experience manipulating UAVs.

And we’ll add from ourselves that this incident simply reeks of Orcs. After the long slumber in which Western European countries existed, waking up is especially hard for them. But the reaction to the incident with drones over a French nuclear base suggests that the awakening might have already begun.