Germany’s military is to help defend the civilian sector against drones by providing administrative assistance to the police, Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said on Friday.
Speaking hours after a major unidentified drone scare at Munich airport, the minister said he would shortly present a new draft aviation security law.
The threat posed by drones is growing, not only because of their increasing numbers, but also because of the quality of the devices, according to Dobrindt.
He cited sightings of drones with a wingspan of up to 8 metres in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein.
However, the minister did not provide details about the type and number of drones that had been sighted near Munich Airport the previous day.
It was not yet possible to give a figure because multiple sightings of a single aircraft were also possible, Dobrindt said.
The background to the possible pilots and motivation had also not yet been clarified.
Drone defence and migration issues were agenda items at a meeting with his European counterparts this weekend, Dobrindt said.
Among other things, this involves the development of a European plan for the detection and defence against drones.
“We are in a race between the drone threat and drone defence,” said the minister, adding that these must still be balanced up.
A joint drone defence centre is recommended to be set up in Germany by the federal and state governments with the involvement of the armed forces.
This centre will be responsible for analysing threats, joint communication, and coordinating an appropriate response. It will also be necessary to distinguish between concrete threats and attempts at provocation, he noted.
On Thursday evening, police said several people reported seeing a drone near Munich airport, one of Germany’s busiest, with subsequent sightings over the airport grounds.
It remains unclear whether it was a single drone or multiple devices.
The airport’s runways were closed as a precaution, affecting some 3,000 passengers. Flights were operating as usual on Friday.
