The office of German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has approved a law allowing the Bundeswehr to shoot down unknown drones suspected of spying on military bases, industrial facilities, and other critical infrastructure, UNN reports with reference to Bloomberg.
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The draft amendment to the Aviation Security Act will allow the military in Germany to use force against unmanned aerial vehicles at the request of local police, Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt told reporters in Berlin on Wednesday. Previously, authorities resorted to jamming drones to disable them, but some new models appear to be resistant to such technologies.
Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, a senior member of the ruling Social Democratic Party, pushed for the measure after an increasing number of drones were spotted in restricted airspace near energy, telecommunications, transport, and industrial facilities across the country in recent months.
"Drones are appearing in German airspace almost daily," Merz wrote in a post on X. "The principle is this: we must be able to defend ourselves so that we don't have to defend ourselves."
The government in Berlin suspects that the drones are likely being used by a state actor for sabotage and possibly terrorism. The draft amendment does not mention a specific country, but officials believe that Russia and China are the main culprits.
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To neutralize suspicious drones, the German armed forces will be allowed to use weapons or other equipment, such as jammers – devices that interrupt communication between UAVs and remote controls.
However, such measures should only be taken if there are no other ways to prevent the threat and if it can be assumed that human lives are at risk or an important object could be destroyed.
According to a government representative, the final decision on shooting down a drone is made by the Minister of Defense to shorten the chain of command.
The law has drawn objections from opposition MPs, who cite constitutional provisions that prohibit the Bundeswehr from operating within Germany.
The rules allow such deployment in peacetime only in clearly defined exceptional cases — for example, as administrative assistance in the event of natural disasters, pandemics, or to support the police.