An investigation was opened following an illegal flight, Monday, November 10, in Bergerac at the premises of the company Eurenco, which produces propellant powder for shells, Agence France-Presse (AFP) learned on Tuesday from the Dordogne prefecture.
According to police sources, a drone flew twice over this location around 7 p.m., which can produce up to 1,200 tons of gunpowder per year for the French army, without being able to be intercepted or identified, and its remote pilot is still being sought.
An investigation into “voluntary overflight by the pilot of an aircraft in a restricted zone” was opened and entrusted to the interdepartmental direction of the Dordogne national police, and the company Eurenco will file a complaint on Wednesday, detailed the prefectural department in a press release. “The security of sites that are classified as sensitive remains an absolute priority” And “surveillance and protection measures were strengthened as soon as the flight was discovered”he added.
Its turnover has doubled in five years
Eurenco, founded in 2004, is a European leader in powders and explosives with two sites in France (Bergerac and Sorgues in Vaucluse), another in Sweden and the last in Belgium. The company has around 1,700 employees and will generate a turnover of almost 500 million euros by 2024 – which has doubled in five years.
The powder, its propellant or explosive, is used in all French and many European munitions, bombs, missile and torpedo heads, bullets or medium caliber ammunition.
The Perigord powder production unit was inaugurated in March, almost twenty years after the relocation of this production to Sweden in 2007, due to a lack of orders, thus marking a strategic relocation at a time when Europe was looking to rearm.
