536 Drones Spotted Over Germany in Three Months

Between January and March, 536 unidentified reconnaissance drones were spotted over Germany, monitoring military and critical infrastructure.

This is reported by Bild.

During this period, 270 incidents involving 536 drones were recorded. In at least 55 cases, two or more drones were spotted at the same time.

UAVs were mostly spotted in the evening (45%, from 18:00 to 24:00) and at night (28%, from 0:00 to 6:00). During the day, they were spotted less frequently: 13% in the morning, 14% in the afternoon. Most observations were made on Wednesday (51), Tuesday (48) and Monday (42).

Drones were most often spotted around military installations, with 117 reports registered here. The epicenters were the Bundeswehr Naval Base in Wilhelmshaven and Ramstein Air Base, where up to 15 drones were spotted at a time.

Among critical infrastructure facilities, most cases involved the energy sector. In the first quarter, 88 incidents were reported. These were mostly flights over LNG terminals in Stade, Wilhelmshaven, and Brunsbüttel.

Drones were also spotted spying on civilian airports, ports, and railway stations. In addition, they flew over defense enterprises, state government and administrative buildings.

Prosecutors opened 123 criminal cases in Lower Saxony (52), Schleswig-Holstein (46), Rhineland-Palatinate (31), Bavaria (30), and North Rhine-Westphalia (24). However, ongoing investigations have not been able to prove that the drones had been operated from abroad, but they have not been able to rule it out either. In only 8 cases were 10 drone pilots identified.

As a reminder, in January 2025, Germany proposed to allow the military to shoot down suspicious drones spotted near military installations or critical infrastructure.

Current German law allows the military to distract drones, threaten the use of force, or fire warning shots. However, shooting them down is still prohibited even in cases where they pose a serious threat.

In addition, the drone is the responsibility of the police in the region where it was discovered, and a number of bureaucratic procedures must be completed to neutralize the drone.

According to one version, the Russians may be launching Orlan-10 drones, which were spotted over Germany from ships in the North Sea, for reconnaissance purposes. After being launched from ships in the North Sea, the UAVs fly over German territory, collecting information, and then land in the Kaliningrad region of Russia.