Germany boosts police anti-drone unit after incident at strategic airport

BERLIN – Germany will beef up its anti-drone police unit, the government said on Aug 10, days after an explosives-laden unmanned aerial vehicle was flown into a strategically important airport.

Berlin was shocked by the incident last week when the UAV was defused after it was found near a Ukrainian cargo plane at Leipzig-Halle airport, a key hub for military equipment transport.

Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt – who labelled the incident a “hybrid attack scenario” potentially involving a “foreign power” – now plans to double personnel in the federal police anti-drone unit to 300.

The number of operational bases for the unit will be increased from four to eight, a ministry spokeswoman said at a press conference.

She said that Dobrindt would next week formally open a new drone technology research centre, attached to the German Aerospace Centre.

According to news weekly Die Zeit, the drone at Leipzig airport bounced off one wing of the Antonov plane hours before it was discovered by an airport employee around midnight.

The reason the explosives failed to detonate remained unclear, said the unconfirmed report that cited security camera footage.

The airport in eastern Germany plays a key role in the transport of military goods by the German armed forces and NATO allies. It also serves as a base for Ukraine’s Antonov Airlines.

Germany and other European countries have observed UAVs frequently flying over sensitive sites such as airports, military bases and industrial plants.

The authorities in Germany, one of Ukraine’s biggest military supporters, have said they suspect Russia of orchestrating many of the incidents as part of a campaign of sabotage, espionage and disinformation.

Russia has denied being behind any such incidents. Its embassy last week dismissed the Leipzig incident as a “hastily contrived provocation” that “serves only the interests of Kyiv and the militarist wing of the European political establishment”. AFP