The drone incursions over Germany are more serious than they were previously anticipated, with swarms of unknown drones sighted over critical infrastructure as well as military facilities.
Germany’s Munich airport halted flights after several drone sightings, a police spokesperson told AFP. The airport issued a statement stating that 17 flights departing from Munich were cancelled on Thursday night, affecting nearly 3,000 passengers, and 15 flights due to land were diverted to other cities.
Several people spotted drones around the airport at about 1930 GMT Thursday, and again an hour later, leading to the closure of both runways for an hour, the police spokesperson told AFP. German authorities have launched a probe to trace the origin of the drones.
Earlier, German State Interior Minister Sabine Sütterlin-Waack confirmed that drone sightings had occurred overnight last week in a report submitted to the legal committee of the Schleswig-Holstein parliament on October 1.
“Drone-like aircraft were observed and reported in the Dithmarschen region, in the district of Rendsburg-Eckernförde, as well as over Kiel — including above critical infrastructure and military facilities,” the Minister said in the public report, referring to Germany’s northernmost region near its border with Denmark.
“The allegedly sighted drones were of different types and sizes. The state police were on-site and documented these sightings, which are currently being evaluated by the State Criminal Police Office.”
According to Sütterlin-Waack, it was eventually established that a number of the sightings were not unlawful drone overflights. However, some are still unaccounted for, such as those over vital infrastructure.
According to a report by German publication Der Spiegel, drone swarms were spotted over a hospital, a power plant, an oil refinery, a facility owned by ThyssenKrupp’s naval division, and even the Schleswig-Holstein parliament building in Kiel. The drones were allegedly used to take measurements.
Similar sightings were reported in the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, which is close to Germany’s border with Poland, overnight on September 25 and 26. These sightings included a naval headquarters in Rostock and an army location in Sanitz.
BREAKING:
Turns out the drone intrusions in Germany were worse than initially thought.
The authorities now say swarms of drones flew over critical infrastructure sites such as the Thyssenkrupp naval shipyard in Kiel, a power plant, the Kiel State Parliament and the Heide… pic.twitter.com/ewCH4xaAr1
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) October 1, 2025
German authorities view these incursions as provocative and are urging reform to curb them. Following the incident, Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said that he plans to overhaul the country’s aviation security law and allow the armed forces to shoot down drones or hostile aircraft that pose a threat to the security of the country.
Dobrindt said that the current surge in drone incursions over Germany and its neighbors is a result of a “continuous hybrid threat” that includes everything—from coordinated swarms to small commercial quadcopters.
“We are experiencing an arms race — between drone threats and drone defense,” he noted. “This is a race we cannot afford to lose.”
First, the minister announced that he would create a national drone defense center that would combine resources from the German military forces, or Bundeswehr, state police, federal police, and the federal criminal office.
Second, the government will make changes to Germany’s 2005 Aviation Security Act. The new law would specifically allow the Bundeswehr to intervene under the pretext of military support for civilian authorities when police capacity is inadequate. “That naturally also includes the option of shooting down drones,” the Minister emphasised.
Germany has recently acquired German-made interceptor drones that capture enemy drones with nets. While the country’s existing framework only permits limited police use of signal disruption or net systems, leaving it powerless against bigger or armed drones.
However, there are legal concerns with extending the military’s reach in domestic airspace, since the Bundeswehr is prohibited from performing ordinary domestic security duties under the constitution.
Germany’s drone problem has persisted for a long time. In August 2024, high-speed drones were observed flying over nuclear power plants in Brunsbüttel, Germany, as reported by the EurAsian Times at the time.
Additionally, the Police of Schleswig-Holstein placed officers on alert after a drone incident on August 22 last year. A report published in Spiegel at the time stated that police drones failed to match the mystery drones’ flight speeds when they attempted to track them back to sea.
Drone incursions were similarly reported in December at Manching and nearby Neuburg an der Donau, triggering concerns that they were allegedly taking photographs of military installations.
Manching is used to test the airworthiness of new aircraft ordered for the German military. Similarly, up to 10 mysterious drones were spotted above an air base in the southern state of Bavaria in January 2025.
There have been several security scares at NATO and Bundeswehr military locations in Germany of late, which have put the country on high alert regarding possible Russian espionage or even sabotage.
Notably, a recent report published by Deutsche Welle (DW) states that cyberattacks were reported against security software used by several European airports, including Berlin Airport, in the same week that drones were observed flying above several of those same hubs.
While a clear connection between the two incidents could not be established, there are persistent concerns that the drones are performing dual duties of reconnaissance and sabotage. The EurAsian Times, however, could not verify these speculations.
Warning of the threats posed by the drones, Jürgen Nauditt, a netizen who regularly posts about military matters on X, said: “The drones were moving on ‘parallel courses,’ which could indicate mapping of the area — similar flights were also detected in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania over military installations and the port of Rostock.”
Drone Sightings On The Rise: What’s Happening?
The proliferation of drones operating above critical facilities has escalated globally, especially in Europe, leading to concerns that the Kremlin could be behind these activities. However, no country has been able to prove its role in the sightings decisively.
These drone sightings are part of a larger problem of suspicious drone activity, which is linked to potential attempts at spying or sabotage. Besides Germany, multiple suspicious drones entered Denmark and flew over Danish airports, some of which also housed military facilities.
In another separate incident, drones were sighted near multiple military installations, including the Karup Air Base, the largest facility in Denmark. Danish officials said that the incursions appeared to be a “hybrid attack.”
During the incursions in Denmark, a former Ukrainian Army officer and founder of the Frontelligence Insight who goes by the name Tatarigami_UA on X, said: “Based on the data available so far, the incident tonight is best described as ‘probing.’ It’s a step in a gradual escalation against Europe – progressing from jamming and sabotage operations to single drone flights, and now small swarms over the EU and NATO member Poland.”
Unknown drones were spotted over Sweden on September 23, particularly over the Karlskrona Archipelago naval base. Additionally, drones were sighted in Norway over Ørland Air Station, which houses the F-35 Lightning II, and at Vilnius airport in Lithuania, which shares a land border with Russian territory.
Drone-led espionage has become a major concern in the West. In April 2022, drone flights over British nuclear installations triggered concerns about spying. At that time, defense officials said that they believed that Beijing’s spies had been responsible for 18 drone sightings at military sites and power facilities around the UK in just two years.
Earlier, British soldiers were warned that Russian spies could be using drones to surveil UK military bases to gather intelligence on the confidential training program designed for Ukrainian forces.
Before that, German media had revealed that for over a year, unidentified drones had been routinely observed above German military training grounds, overlying the areas where Ukrainian military forces were receiving training.
In November 2024, the United States Air Force in Europe (USAFE) reported that several small, unidentified drones were spotted near three of its airbases in the United Kingdom: RAF Lakenheath, RAF Mildenhall in Suffolk, and RAF Feltwell in Norfolk, eastern England.
Unidentified drones have also been spotted over the US on multiple occasions. In December 2024, some unidentified drones were spotted over Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio on the intervening night of December 13-14, forcing the facility to shut down.
One of the first such sightings was reported in December 2023 over the Langley Air Force Base, which is home to the mighty F-22 Raptors and considered crucial to the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and the United States Northern Command (NORTHCOM). The sightings over Langley AFB were so concerning that they prompted US Air Force Gen. Mark Kelly to visit the base himself.
Notably, New Jersey was earlier known to be abuzz with mysterious drone activity. In November 2024, drones were spotted over President Donald Trump’s golf property in Bedminster, near the Picatinny Arsenal and Naval Weapons Station Earle, a military research and manufacturing site.
The proliferation of drones operating above critical facilities has escalated globally, especially in Europe, leading to concerns about spying from adversaries like Russia or China.
Officials and experts have warned that drone operations over vital national infrastructure sites, navy battleships, and sensitive military locations pose a significant security issue– a fact now reinforced by multiple sightings across Europe.
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