Drones about Europe: Does Interior Minister Dobrindt allow the shooting?

In view of increasing drone incidents in Germany and Europe, Federal Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt (CSU) is planning to expand the powers to defend the aircraft. Among other things, measures are that the Bundeswehr should be able to shoot unmanned flight objects under certain conditions in the future, according to the “Bild” newspaper.

According to this, intervention with weapons should be possible if an acute danger to lives or important infrastructures runs out of a drone and other immune measures are not sufficient. In such crisis situations, the decision -making power should be transferred to the Federal Ministry of Defense.

A spokesman for the Federal Ministry of the Interior confirmed on the “Bild” request that discussions about an adaptation of the Air Security Act would currently be ongoing. According to the newspaper, he did not give details.

According to the “Bild” report, the plan also includes technical and operational measures such as recognition, classification and electronic defense against drones. This included interference or systems to take over the control of unmanned flying objects.

For two weeks now, Russian drones have been entering the EU and NATO airspace again and again- including in Poland and Romania. Most recently there had been drone overfirts at airports in Denmark. The airports had to partially stop the operation.

According to the “Welt am Sonntag”, transport aircraft in the air on a large scale have become the goal of interference attacks. From January to August, the German air traffic control (DFS) registered 447 reports from aircraft crews, which would have found a fault or manipulation of their satellite navigation during the flight, according to the paper. Only 25 corresponding incidents were recorded two years earlier.

According to the Federal Ministry of Transport, a significant increase in disorders of the GPS signals was found in particular in the Baltic Sea area and above the Baltic States. According to the details, the satellite signals are blamed on the ground using a strong transmitter or irritating deception signals. This signal manipulation, called spoofing, is considered to be much more dangerous because aircraft crews can be deceived about their actual position.

“The recent incidents in Denmark, for example, clearly show how the greatest possible damage to critical infrastructure can be done with little effort,” said Joachim Lang, general manager of the Federal Association of German Air Transport Management.