Armed quadcopter reached the apron at Europe's Antonov base

An explosive-laden drone came within metres of Ukraine's heavy airlift fleet at Leipzig/Halle Airport, exposing a counter-drone gap over a NATO logistics hub.

An airport employee found a modified quadcopter inside the secure cargo area at Leipzig/Halle Airport shortly before midnight on Aug. 4, Saxony police said. It lay a few metres from a Ukrainian Antonov Airlines An-124 marked "Be Brave Like Kherson." Four Antonov aircraft were on the ground, per Bild.

The drone was carrying an explosive device, police confirmed. Leipziger Volkszeitung put the charge at as much as 800 grams of plastic explosive, and documents obtained by Welt indicate the bomb failed only because its detonator had broken off.

That quantity would do considerable damage to an aircraft, Trevor Lawrence, an explosives expert at Cranfield University, estimated, since aircraft bodies are often only 3 millimetres of aluminium. Federal police sent in a bomb disposal robot, removed the detonator and carried out a controlled explosion. The northern runway reopened at 1:55 a.m.