Germany is to authorize police to shoot down malicious drones such as those that have caused havoc at airports in Europe, and which some European leaders have blamed on a hybrid war, which they believe Russia is waging.
The new law, which the cabinet approved on 8th October and which is pending parliament’s go-ahead, specifically empowers the police to shoot down drones that breach Germany’s airspace, including where there is acute danger or serious injury.
Alternative methods for bringing down drones involve employing lasers or disrupting signals to cut control and navigation connections.
“Drone incidents pose a threat to our security,” Chancellor Friedrich Merz wrote in a social media post on platform X.
“We will not let that happen. We are enhancing the Federal Police’s authority so that drones will be spotted and repelled more promptly in the future.”
The new legislation follows after dozens of flights were redirected or grounded last Friday at Munich Airport, Germany’s second-largest airport, stranding over 10,000 travelers, following sightings of errant drones.
Merz said he had presumed Russia was behind most of the drones seen over Germany over the weekend, but no one had been weaponized and were actually on reconnaissance missions.
EU leaders have now come to see Russia as a significant security threat to their continent since Moscow launched its 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine and backed Kyiv.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen last month urged what she termed a drone wall – an array of sensors and weapons designed to spot, track, and neutralise encroaching unmanned aircraft – to guard Europe’s eastern border.
Some, however, assert the drones used in recent incidents were also launched from within the EU.
Under the new law, Germany follows other European nations that have recently authorized security forces with the ability to shoot down drones that are breaching their airspace, such as Britain, France, Lithuania, and Romania.
A specialist counter-drone unit will be formed within the federal police, Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt announced, and scientists would approach Israel and Ukraine as they were more developed in drone technology.
Police would handle drones at tree-level flight, while more advanced drones should be handled by the military, Dobrindt added.
Germany experienced 172 drone-related air traffic disruptions from January through September 2025, compared with 129 in the first nine months of last year and 121 in 2023, based on Deutsche Flugsicherung (DFS) statistics.
German military exercises last month in the northern port of Hamburg illustrated how, spider-like, a large military drone fired a net at a smaller one in flight, ensnaring its propellers and making it crash to the ground, where a robot dog trotted over to look for potential explosives.
Shooting down drones might not be safe in populated urban environments, though, and airports may not have detection systems for reporting sightings in real-time.
