Following the incident involving an explosives-laden drone at Leipzig airport, the German government is expanding its counter-drone capabilities. The Federal Police's drone defence unit is to be increased from 130 to 300 officers, a spokeswoman for the Federal Ministry of the Interior confirmed in Berlin on Monday. The Defence Ministry, meanwhile, rejected calls for the Bundeswehr to be deployed at airports as well, pointing to a lack of capacity.
The Federal Police's drone defence unit is in future also to operate from eight locations rather than the current four, the Interior Ministry spokeswoman said. Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt (CSU) was expected to issue a corresponding directive to the Federal Police on Monday.
Schleswig-Holstein's Minister President Daniel Günther (CDU) has meanwhile joined calls for the Bundeswehr, alongside the Federal Police, which has been responsible until now, to be used to protect airports from drones. "I believe that in these times this strict separation between external and internal security, between the federal government and the states, is no longer in keeping with the times," he told Deutschlandfunk.
He said he considered it "unproblematic that the Bundeswehr should also be deployed in combating [threats] domestically". Günther pointed out that a deployment of the Bundeswehr within Germany would, however, require an amendment to the Basic Law. That, he said, now needs to be discussed.
Contradiction came from the SPD. "Talking about amendments to the Basic Law right now makes relatively little sense," SPD foreign policy politician Ralf Stegner told Welt TV. "Incidentally, we currently have no majority capable of amending the Basic Law in either the Bundestag or the Bundesrat." Whether a Bundeswehr deployment would be sensible was, he said, "debatable in any case". In Stegner's view, the priority is to put cooperation and areas of responsibility between the federal government and the states in order.
The chairman of the Bundestag's defence committee, Thomas Röwekamp (CDU), called for the same thing. More than 40 authorities in Germany are involved in air security, he told the broadcaster Phoenix. "That is simply no longer in keeping with the times." A national responsibility is needed, he said, in order to counter drone attacks. In the CDU politician's view, only the Federal Police can take on that role.
For its part, the Federal Ministry of Defence saw no capacity for a deployment of the Bundeswehr at airports. There was "too much area, too much space, too many kilometres" that the Bundeswehr would have to protect, a spokesman said. Even at its own roughly one thousand properties and 300 major sites, he said, the armed forces cannot provide drone detection and defence measures "around the clock along tens of thousands of kilometres of perimeter fencing".
In the case of airports, he continued, it is first and foremost the operators and the authorities responsible for internal security who are called upon. The Bundeswehr supports them where required, as set out in the Aviation Security Act, the spokesman said. There will, however, be no such thing as one hundred percent security.
All airports for which the Federal Police is responsible are to be fitted "with mobile counter-drone technology", the Interior Ministry spokeswoman said. "Priority is being given to the eight major airports of Frankfurt am Main, Munich, Berlin, Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Cologne/Bonn, Stuttgart and Leipzig/Halle." Where tender and procurement procedures are still under way, these are to be concluded by the end of the year, with the airports equipped with counter-drone technology by then.
The ministry spokeswoman also referred to a new technology centre for drone security, due to be inaugurated on 18 August at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Cochstedt, Saxony-Anhalt. Innovative technologies for drone security can be researched, developed and tested there.
At Leipzig/Halle airport, a drone loaded with explosives was discovered in the security area of the cargo operation during the night leading into Wednesday. Several Ukrainian cargo aircraft were nearby. The airport is regarded as a transshipment hub for military aid deliveries to Ukraine.
According to a report by the weekly newspaper "Die Zeit", surveillance video shows the drone flying directly towards a Ukrainian cargo aircraft. It struck the aircraft's wing at around 7.30 p.m., bounced off and fell to the ground. Why the explosive device did not detonate is said to be still unclear.
As the "Bild" newspaper reported, there is also already a concrete DNA trace. It is said to be identical with a trace recorded during an arson attack on the DHL logistics centre in Leipzig in July 2024. European investigators see a connection between that earlier series of parcel incendiary devices and the Russian military intelligence service GRU. The Federal Prosecutor's Office did not comment on the report when asked.
On Thursday evening, according to the Bundeswehr, two drones were additionally sighted over the military site at Mechernich in North Rhine-Westphalia. According to media reports, the Patriot air defence system is serviced there.
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