Drohnenabwehr wird ausgebaut - Bund verstärkt Schutz an Flughäfen
www.tagesschau.de
Die Bundespolizei soll künftig für mehr Schutz vor Drohnenangriffen an deutschen Flughäfen sorgen. 300 Spezialkräfte sollen deutschlandweit an acht Standorten im Einsatz sein. Auch mehr Technik zur Abwehr ist geplant.

[Original in German. Automated translation with minimal edits.] …

The German Federal Police are to provide more protection against drone attacks at German airports. 300 special forces are to be deployed at eight locations across Germany. More defence technology is also planned.

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The special forces are to track down drones, intercept them and, if necessary, render them harmless. So far, the federal government has assumed around 130 people.

Instead of four locations for drone defence in Germany, eight are now planned “in order to be on site quickly and flexibly when needed”. The spokeswoman did not say where the future locations would be.

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Last week, a drone loaded with explosives was discovered near Ukrainian cargo planes at Leipzig/Halle Airport. Meanwhile, the newspaper Zeit reported, citing surveillance cameras, that the drone had been flown deliberately towards a Ukrainian cargo plane and had hit its wing. Traces of the impact were visible on one wing of the Antonov aircraft.

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However, the missile, which was equipped with Semtex explosive, did not explode. The explosives may have detached on impact and were not found on the drone itself, but at some distance away. It is unclear why the explosive device did not detonate.

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The German government has not yet commented on progress in the investigation or possible links to previous operations with connections to Russia. Security circles are convinced that the drone was modified by a professional with technical expertise.

In July 2024, an air freight parcel ignited in the DHL logistics centre in Leipzig. Security circles believe that the package was placed on Russia’s behalf. At that time, Germany probably only narrowly escaped an aircraft crash.

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[Edit typo.]

  • trollercoaster@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    2·
    4 hours ago

    Even if there were total disregard for life safety (which there isn’t, at least not on this side of the conflict), the material damage this can do is immense, too, especially in a high value environment like an airport.

    In that conflict loosely related to those drone incidents, we have seen multiple incidents of anti-drone defence causing more damage than the actual drone attack, due to reckless use of potent weapons near vulnerable facilities. Nobody in their right mind would want that, even though in an all-out war with large scale attacks, more risk is acceptable than in a “not quite war yet” scenario where hostile intelligence services are committing small scale, single point terrorist acts.