Germany considers allowing military to shoot down suspicious drones

The reason given is that unmanned drones regularly make illegal flights over critical infrastructure facilities in Germany, such as power plants, key telecommunications facilities, sensitive industrial sites and transport infrastructure.

The illegal flights, according to the draft, are presumably “carried out by a state actor for sabotage and possibly terrorist purposes.”

The draft amendment would allow the military to shoot down drones in support of the police if there is a threat of major damage or danger to life and limb.

Such overflights had recently become more frequent, according to German officials. Incidents have been reported at training centres in Germany for Ukrainian soldiers, security-related companies as well as the major US Ramstein Air Base in western Germany.

The police and military have so far had little opportunity to intervene, and those responsible for the illegal drone flights have only very rarely been identified and apprehended.

In November, a suspicious drone flew around the UK naval aircraft carrier Queen Elizabeth, which was visiting Hamburg. The German military confirmed the drone sighting and unsuccessfully tried to deploy a counter-drone equipped with jamming gear.

A spokesman for the Interior Ministry said on Friday that he “would neither confirm nor deny” the plan as long as there was no Cabinet decision and coordination was still ongoing.

“We have seen a significant increase in drone incidents, especially since the start of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine,” he said.

There have been repeated “security incidents” involving drones, which are “less and less susceptible to technical faults” in terms of their equipment and design, he said.

Sources told dpa that Interior Minister Nancy Faeser and Defence Minister Boris Pistorius spoke on December 16 about tightening up measures against drones.

The Aviation Security Act currently only allows the German armed forces to use comparatively mild means, including forcing aircraft out of the airspace, attempting to force them to land and the firing off warning shots.

By Carsten Hoffmann