After recent disruptions at Munich Airport caused by mysterious drone sightings in the area, Germany has approved a law granting police the authority to shoot down suspicious drones.
The measures mark a significant shift in how German authorities address anti-drone defense, which previously only focused on detecting drones, not shooting them down, according to reports from the TWZ website.
In addition to Germany, many European countries have been dealing with drone incursions in their airspace, a trend the German chancellor Friedrich Merz attributes to Russia.
“Drone incidents threaten our security. We will not allow this. We are strengthening the powers of the Federal Police so that drones can be detected and intercepted more quickly in the future,” said Merz in a post on his official X profile last Wednesday (8).
The new law, which is still awaiting parliamentary approval, would authorize police to shoot down drones that “violate German airspace, including shooting them down in cases of immediate threat or serious damage,” according to Reuters.
In addition to kinetic anti-drone measures, the new law also grants German authorities permission to use “lasers or interference signals to cut off control and navigation links,” the news agency further reported.
“To counter a threat posed by unmanned aerial systems on land, in the air, or on water, the federal police may employ appropriate technical means against the system, its control unit, or its control connection if other means of countering the threat are ineffective or significantly more difficult,” the new law states.
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