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BERLIN: Germany will grant police the power to shoot down rogue drones like those that have disrupted airports across Europe and that some European leaders have attributed to a hybrid war being waged by Russia.
The new law, agreed by the cabinet on Wednesday and awaiting parliamentary approval, explicitly authorizes the police to down drones violating Germany’s airspace, including shooting them down in cases of acute threat or serious harm.
Other techniques available to down drones include using lasers or jamming signals to sever control and navigation links. The new law comes after dozens of flights were diverted or canceled last Friday at Munich Airport, Germany’s second largest, leaving more than 10,000 passengers stranded, after rogue drone sightings. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has said he assumed Russia was behind many of the drones flying over Germany last weekend, but none had been armed and were rather on reconnaissance flights. EU leaders have come to view Russia as a major threat to their continent’s security following Moscow’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine and their support of Kyiv. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called last month for what she described as a drone wall – a network of sensors and weapons to detect, track and neutralize intruding unmanned aircraft – to protect Europe’s eastern flank.
But some say the drones involved in recent incidents could also have been launched from within the EU. With the new law, Germany joins European countries that have recently given security forces powers to down drones violating their airspace, including Britain, France, Lithuania and Romania.
It states that to avert dangers posed by drones on the land, in the air or on water, police “may employ appropriate technical means against the system, its control unit, or its control link, if averting the danger by other measures would be futile or significantly impeded.”
Germany recorded 172 drone-related disruptions to air traffic between January and the end of September 2025, up from 129 in the same period last year and 121 in 2023, according to data from Deutsche Flugsicherung (DFS).
German military drills last month in the northern port city of Hamburg included a demonstration of how to neutralize a rogue drone.
Like a spider, a large military drone shot a net at a smaller one in mid-flight, entangling its propellers and forcing it to the ground, where a robotic dog trotted over to seek possible explosives.
Shooting down drones could be unsafe in densely populated urban areas, however, and airports do not necessarily have detection systems that can immediately report sightings.

Afghanistan’s regional neighbors, including American allies, appeared to unite against US President Donald Trump’s stated aim of taking over the Bagram military base near Kabul, according to a statement released after they met in Moscow.
The “Moscow Format” meeting on Afghanistan – the seventh such event hosted by Russia but attended for the first time by the Taliban administration’s foreign minister – included US partners India and Pakistan. The 10 nations also included Russia, China and Iran as well as Central Asian countries.
In a joint statement released by Russia’s foreign ministry late on Tuesday, the 10 countries did not name the United States or Bagram itself, but seemed to take aim at Trump’s plan for the base, endorsing the Taliban’s position on the issue.
“They (the countries meeting) called unacceptable the attempts by countries to deploy their military infrastructure in Afghanistan and neighboring states, since this does not serve the interests of regional peace and stability,” the joint statement read.
Taliban opposition to foreign forces
At a press conference on Tuesday in Moscow at the conclusion of the event, the Taliban’s Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi reiterated its position.
“Afghanistan is a free and independent country, and throughout history, it has never accepted the military presence of foreigners. Our decision and policy will remain the same to keep Afghanistan free and independent,” he said.
The US Department of State did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Taliban’s first administration was ousted in 2001 by a US-led invasion of the country, triggering an insurgency by the group.
Bagram, just outside the capital Kabul, became the biggest and best-known US base in Afghanistan before the chaotic US withdrawal from the country in 2021 as the Taliban retook control.
Last month, Trump threatened “bad things” would happen to Afghanistan if it does not give back Bagram, and cited what he called its strategic location near China.
Current and former US officials have cast doubt on Trump’s goal, saying that re-occupying Bagram might end up looking like a re-invasion, requiring more than 10,000 troops as well as deployment of advanced air defenses.