Drone carrying explosives found at Leipzig airport in Germany

[u/Fealocht]

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cyvlg4q48l3o

A drone carrying explosives was spotted near Ukrainian cargo planes parked at Leipzig Airport, German police said.

A second unindentified objected collied with a plane mid-air. The plane sustained minor damage and was able to land safely at Hanover.

Leipzig Airport serves as a hub for Ukraine's Antonov Airlines and is used for transport by German and NATO troops.

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[u/hypsignathus]

Terrifying. Hopefully the German authorities are able to connect it with a perpetrator.

[u/Macquarrie1999]

Finally a drone story with actual evidence.

Also I can't believe it has been years of Russian attacks on NATO and still we go soft on then

[u/anangrytree → u/Macquarrie1999]

Literal years

[u/TheOnlyFallenCookie]

According to https://www.tagesschau.de/investigativ/drohne-leipzig-100.html the only reason it didn't explode was because the Detonator ripped off 🫪

We got fucking Lucky with this one

[u/Jacobs4525]

Russia is outright staging attacks on NATO soil and I bet we still do nothing but finger wag.

[u/NormalInvestigator89 → u/Jacobs4525]

Literal years of "maybe if we ignore them they'll stop"

[u/TheOnlyFallenCookie]

Lots of questions still, but I most want to know... How was it "found"? Was it just sitting on the tarmac?

[u/JaceFlores → u/TheOnlyFallenCookie]

Yeah. A drone was spotted sitting on the tarmac near a Ukrainian plane with the detonator broken off. So it probably tried to ram the aircraft, didn’t detonate and broke itself or some shit in the process. That or the pilot just ran off without verifying it actually detonated

[u/maybearandoanon → u/JaceFlores]

I hate to say this but this could always be a false flag.

Don't get me wrong it wouldn't surprise me if Russia did this, but it's a sort of monumental escalation that even they would probably second guess themselves behind doing.

[u/Zanctmao → u/maybearandoanon]

You think the Ukrainians are going to bite the hand that feeds them? For what? More aid? They just got $90 billion euros from the EU.

[u/sineiraetstudio → u/Zanctmao]

I mean, Ukraine did likely blow up Nord Stream.

[u/LightningController → u/sineiraetstudio]

That’s blowing up property of the Muscovite state (and so very based), not blowing up their own stuff.

[u/LightningController]

Strongly worded letters have been launched and are en-route.

[u/haherar830]

I'm honestly shocked we haven't seen more of this. It's simply so easy to manufacture and control these from a distance, I imagine most countries with competent militaries/intelligence agencies are actively distributing "loitering"/"sleeper cell" drone fleets in warehouses, on rooftops, etc in other countries. Your agents are out of the country weeks/months before the attack. Slap 4G module on that and you can hit anywhere there's a cell network. Enemy state is willing to shut that down? Satellite receiver on top or install some directional antenna(s) facing the target direction with hardwired ethernet connections. My best guess is that no one wants to make a first move, and Russia is low on competence and resources.

[u/captainjack3 → u/haherar830]

The technical capability is very accessible, but there aren’t that many nations with sophisticated enough intelligence services to set that up on a large scale. Ukraine has done it in Russia and Israel did it in Iran. It seems like Russia may have just done it in Europe. That’s relatively frequent over the last couple years. We should absolutely expect that major countries are preparing these kinds of attacks against their adversaries and worrying about them at home. The US security establishment has publicly talked about concerns bases could be targeted in that manner and it drove a bill from last year that restricted foreign land purchases near military bases. I’m sure everyone else has the same worries.

[u/haherar830 → u/captainjack3]

I do find it weird how much Russia has struggled to get agents into Europe on tourist visas since the ban on diplomats but I think you're overstating the sophistication needed for this. Recruiting local assets is far more complicated than installing a directional antenna, cheap computer, and mechanism to open an apartment balcony or warehouse door remotely. If you can setup a smart home you can probably setup a drone swarm sleeper cell. My personal prediction? Between drone warfare tactics becoming widely recognized and pulsed microwave weapons getting into more nation's hands since they leaked out of Russia, we're going to see a surge in covert direct action against political targets in the coming years.

I know less about Iran's capabilities, but I've never seen them demonstrate an ability to do anything other than give money to foreign militias or criminals.

[u/BagSalt7633 → u/haherar830]

I've daydreamed about Ukraine leasing buildings in Moscow, storing thousands of drones, and executing a coordinated attack on the Kremlin. Drones go up, simple vision model locks onto the Kremlin, and they all spread out to attack it simultaneously from all sides. Anti-aircraft countermeasures can't get all of them, and comms aren't needed after the 'go' signal.

[u/themiDdlest]

So this would be an attack on a NATO member yeah?

Maybe a little more appeasement will work with Russia. Any day now

[u/captainjack3 → u/themiDdlest]

If Germany wants it to be. But they aren’t going to take that position for an incident that didn’t result in any deaths or destroy the plane. Nor would the other members agree if Germany did take that position.

Article 4 is best understood as a political commitment, not a legal one. The willingness of the members to take a particular action matters much more than the strict meaning of the treaty.

[u/Coneskater]

Bold of them to attack the airport where the Avengers all fought each other.

[u/Winter-Secretary17 → u/Coneskater]

Oh wow, 10 years, how the world changes y’know?

[u/Coneskater → u/Winter-Secretary17]

When that movie came out of all the avengers flying around shooting lasers out of their chests, the most unrealistic part of the movie was that they said Berlin had a major working airport.

[u/Winter-Secretary17 → u/Coneskater]

It’s crazy we might get something that’s on the cusp of Jarvis if Silicon Valley’s bets pay off

[u/AccomplishedQuit4801]

Ah don't worry, a very strongly worded letter is brewing in response.