European authorities and militaries are still struggling to stop drones that disrupt airport operations, Swiss daily Neue Zürcher Zeitung reports.

The paper’s authors argue that, despite having modern air-defense systems, shooting down hobby-sized or small tactical drones in peacetime is effectively out of the question. Recent incidents in Copenhagen and Munich exposed the blunt reality: when a drone appears near a runway, airport operators often must halt all traffic to avoid a catastrophe.

The reluctance to open fire is straightforward: using small-arms or artillery near civilian infrastructure is too hazardous. Even precision systems such as Germany’s Skyranger from Rheinmetall carry risks that can outweigh the threat posed by the unmanned aircraft itself. Those systems rely on air-burst munitions that generate clouds of tungsten particles — a danger to people on the ground — which confines their suitable use to military bases rather than commercial aerodromes.

Detection and knock-down are also fiendishly complex. Authorities deploy cameras, acoustic sensors and radio-direction-finding to locate intruding drones, but analysing those signals and deciding on an interception takes time. Jamming the control link is not a silver bullet either: signal suppression can interfere with aviation communications. For that reason, responders favour lower-risk options — net capture, GPS spoofing and electronic takeover of the drone’s control — instead of kinetic engagement.