Someone pointed high-powered lasers at U.S. F-16 jets as they were making their approach to a NATO air base in western Germany on three occasions this month, according to authorities.
Germany has opened an investigation into the incidents, which occurred several miles from Germany’s Spangdahlem Air Base, where the U.S. pilots were preparing to land. All of the pilots landed safely despite being harassed by a large “blue laser beam,” police said in a statement.
Two laser attacks took place on Dec. 2, and another on Dec. 9.
“Such laser attacks can cause severe impairment, temporary visual disturbances or eye injuries to pilots and therefore pose a high risk,” police in the German city of Trier, a few miles south of Spangdahlem Air Base, said Friday in a statement.
High-powered lasers, long the scourge of commercial pilots, have emerged in recent years as a tool in the ever-expanding world of so-called hybrid warfare. In one recent example, British authorities accused a Russian intelligence vessel of flashing lasers at British reconnaissance jets, risking the safety of the pilots.
U.S. Air Force pilots in recent years have been equipped with enhanced eye protection that can mitigate the dangers of high-powered lasers. But tracking perpetrators is a difficult task, and German police have begun seeking eyewitness accounts to discover the perpetrators.
The incidents add to the growing list of hybrid warfare episodes that have occurred across Europe over the past few months. Unidentified drone sightings have closely surveilled military convoys in France and prompted the closure of airports in Germany, Norway, Denmark and Belgium.
The drone sightings have mostly been blamed on Russia, with European Union leaders saying that Moscow is using the incidents to test NATO’s response. Russia, for its part, has not accepted blame and has accused NATO leaders of propagandizing for increased military spending.
