The Kleine Brogel Air Base in Peer, Belgium, is home to a number of F-16 fighter jets. Jill Delsaux/AFP/BELGA MAG/AGetty Images

Several drones spotted above a Belgian airbase over the weekend were there “to spy” on military fighter jets, the country’s defense minister said Sunday, at a time when European nations are on high alert for airspace intrusions.

“They come to spy, to see where the F-16s are, where the munitions are, and other highly strategic things,” Theo Francken told CNN affiliate RTBF.

The drones were clearly “spying,” the minister said, noting the “long time” one of them had spent over the airbase.

Kleine-Brogel Air Base, in the municipality of Peer, hosts the largest unit of Belgian defense forces in the country and aims to “fundamentally contribute to NATO’s nuclear d

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