The hybrid warfare threats facing Europe took a more physical form this month, and France is now openly preparing for the possibility that its own companies and infrastructure could be next.

That warning came Wednesday from Celine Berthon, director of the DGSI, France’s domestic counter-intelligence agency, speaking at a business forum in Paris.

What Happened at Leipzig

On August 4, an explosives-laden drone was found near a Ukrainian Antonov cargo aircraft at Leipzig/Halle airport in Germany.

The airport serves as a major cargo and logistics hub used by both NATO and Antonov Airlines, and the aircraft in question was involved in moving military supplies.

The device was discovered before it could be used.

Why French Intelligence Is Alarmed

Berthon described the find as a signal that cannot be ignored.

She said the discovery of an explosive drone apparently targeting an aircraft supporting the Ukrainian military means France must now consider the possibility of more direct and more violent actions occurring on its own territory.

The most immediate exposure lies with the defence and technology sectors. But she extended the warning across all strategic industries, specifically naming energy and communications.

She did not identify who is suspected of planning the Leipzig operation.

A Sharp Escalation

What Berthon described more broadly was a steep rise in activity since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

She characterised the increase in hybrid threats as meteoric, encompassing cyber intrusion as well as violence carried out through local proxies rather than by foreign operatives directly.

Speaking to executives at the annual forum organised by the business lobby Medef, she said such operations routinely target economic, scientific, and institutional interests. She also flagged their potential use to disrupt the functioning of elections.

France holds a presidential election next year, which gives that concern immediate weight.

Her appearance was itself unusual. The head of the DGSI rarely speaks publicly, and doing so before an audience of business leaders suggests the agency wants private companies actively engaged rather than assuming the state will handle it.

Germany Prepares to Name Names

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Tuesday that Berlin would soon identify who was responsible for the attempted attack at Leipzig.

Moscow has denied any involvement.

Berthon’s remarks echoed those of Germany’s interior minister, who has said his country faces hybrid warfare on a daily basis. Two of Europe’s largest states are now describing the same situation in nearly identical terms.

The Drone Problem France Has Not Solved

Security concerns dominated what is normally a relaxed end-of-summer gathering of the French business establishment, as companies worked through how to protect themselves and adjust to the war economy President Emmanuel Macron has called for.

General Fabien Mandon, head of the French armed forces, delivered the bluntest assessment of the day.

He repeated his warning that France is falling behind adversaries in two related areas: producing inexpensive drones at scale, and building defences capable of handling saturation attacks.

The numbers he cited illustrate the gap. Every night, between 800 and 1,000 drones leave Ukraine bound for Russia, and Russian production runs at roughly the same level.

His diagnosis was uncomfortable. France, he said, has a defence model that performs extremely well against the threats it was designed for. The problem is that its opponents have developed cheap solutions in enormous quantities.

His conclusion was three words: we are not there.

The Economics of the Mismatch

Mandon’s point exposes a structural problem across Western militaries.

European defence systems are built around small numbers of highly capable, expensive platforms. Adversaries are fielding vast numbers of cheap ones.

Intercepting a drone costing a few thousand euros with a missile costing several hundred thousand may work tactically but fails economically. An opponent willing to launch a thousand drones a night can exhaust defences through arithmetic alone.

Building an affordable counter-drone capability, and mass-producing drones domestically, has become one of the more urgent industrial questions in European defence.

Industry Says It Is Ready

Eric Trappier, chief executive of Dassault Aviation, told the forum that France’s defence industry stands ready to meet the demands of rearmament.

That statement carries some weight given Dassault’s position in French aerospace, though readiness and delivery are different things. Scaling production requires orders, financing, supply chains, and workforce, none of which materialise on announcement.

What This Means for Companies

The message to French business was fairly direct.

Critical infrastructure operators, defence suppliers, energy firms, and telecommunications providers are being told they sit on a target list. Physical security, previously a secondary concern for many, now sits alongside cybersecurity as a live operational issue.

A drone carrying explosives requires no state actor to deploy it. That accessibility is precisely what makes the Leipzig incident significant, and precisely why French officials are treating it as a preview rather than an isolated event.

Where Things Stand

Two things are happening simultaneously.

Intelligence services across Europe are describing an environment in which sabotage, cyber operations, and now apparent physical attacks form a continuous campaign rather than isolated incidents.

At the same time, European militaries are acknowledging they are behind on a technology that has reshaped warfare in Ukraine over three years.

Germany’s forthcoming attribution of the Leipzig plot will be watched carefully. Naming a responsible party would force decisions about response that European governments have so far managed to defer.