Flying scouts in the air
Bundeswehr cannot protect locations from drones
February 11, 2024, 9:06 a.m
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The Bundeswehr notices suspicious drone overflights at at least four locations in Bavaria, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saxony-Anhalt. The flying scouts are presumably interested in training Ukrainian soldiers. How the possible espionage can be stopped is unclear.
The Bundeswehr is increasingly noticing unauthorized drone overflights at its locations in Germany. A way to stop these suspected espionage activities has not yet been found. “The number of such incidents has increased recently,” said a spokesman for the Bundeswehr’s Territorial Command when asked. In this context, he also referred to the increased vigilance of soldiers with a view to possible spying attempts.
According to the Military Counterintelligence Service (MAD), these attempts focus, among other things, on the training of Ukrainian soldiers in Germany. Among other things, suspected cases were recorded in Wildflecken in Bavaria, in Grafenwöhr and in Idar-Oberstein in Rhineland-Palatinate, as well as at the Altengrabow military training area in Saxony-Anhalt.
The fact that there has so far been no arrest of a drone pilot in the vicinity of a federal location may also be due to the complex responsibilities. According to the Territorial Command, members of the Bundeswehr are allowed to prevent crimes against the Bundeswehr and, within the requirements of the law, to detain people. These would then, if necessary, as well as seized drones, be handed over to the police for further investigative work. However, outside of Bundeswehr properties, the police are responsible for prosecution and, if necessary, arrest, as the Federal Ministry of the Interior confirms: “The police of the federal states are generally responsible for police measures on the occasion of suspicious drone overflights at Bundeswehr locations.”
The fact that the sighted drones can at least partially be attributed to Russian secret service activities is – as no one has been convicted yet – only a working hypothesis. However, since such conspicuous drone overflights were observed at the beginning and end of training measures for Ukrainian soldiers, it is “relatively clear in which direction things are going,” MAD President Martina Rosenberg explained last fall.