Aviation · C-UAS
Seven years after Gatwick, drone sightings again demonstrated how quickly uncertainty in the airspace can become an operational resilience problem on the ground.
In September 2025, Copenhagen Airport suspended take-offs and landings for nearly four hours following sightings of large drones. Reuters reported that around 50 flights were diverted while police investigated the incident.
The details and attribution of any live drone incident should be treated carefully. But the operational lesson is clear: years after Gatwick, airports and other high-consequence sites still face the challenge of making time-critical decisions when information may be incomplete.
Commercial availability, autonomy, navigation options and rapidly developing unmanned technologies continue to broaden the range of aerial-threat scenarios organisations may need to consider. At the same time, false alarms and uncertain detections can themselves create consequences where operations are highly sensitive to airspace risk.
A credible capability should define how detections are assessed, how information is fused, who makes decisions, what external agencies are involved, what response options exist and how operational disruption is managed. Without that framework, additional sensors can produce more information without necessarily producing better decisions.
Exercises should not always present teams with a confirmed hostile drone and an obvious answer. Real incidents may involve conflicting reports, intermittent tracks, uncertain identification and pressure from multiple stakeholders. Exercising ambiguity tests judgement, escalation and communication — the parts of the system that technology alone cannot solve.
