Explosive-laden drone in Leipzig: interior ministers see time pressure on drone defense capabilities

In a telephone conference, the interior ministers of the federal government and the states emphasized the need to make faster progress in the ability to defend against potentially dangerous drones. Saxony's interior minister Armin Schuster (CDU) told the German Press Agency afterwards that mutual support and joint research and procurement were necessary.

"The Saxon state government, together with the airport operator, is working with determination to ensure that Leipzig/Halle Airport is equipped with drone defense technology and drone detection by the federal government with the highest priority and in the front row - especially against the background of its central importance as one of the largest European cargo airports," he added.

Drone was converted and equipped with explosives

On Tuesday evening of last week, a drone loaded with explosives was discovered on the airport premises between several Ukrainian cargo planes. The security forces classified the incident as very serious. The Federal Prosecutor's Office has taken over the investigations. It speaks of a "serious attack on the transport and logistics infrastructure in Germany".

What about the ports?

Lower Saxony's interior minister Daniela Behrens (SPD) said: "If we look at the federal government's drone defense concept, then the airports are included, but unfortunately not all of them - Hannover, for example, is not." That is a gap that she cannot accept. In her view, the ports, like the airports, are part of the critical infrastructure.

"We don't have any real idea from the federal government for the ports, for example," she criticized. At the latest, the incident in Leipzig has shown "that we can become one step faster there". She and Bremen's interior senator Eva Högl (SPD) called for a special interior ministers' conference to be convened in order to discuss drone defense in more depth.

Högl said there is still "a deficit in technology, which we need to catch up on as quickly as possible". The situation is serious.

It's about capabilities, not responsibilities

Schuster disagreed with some experts and politicians who had criticized the unclear distribution of responsibility between airport operators, state police, federal police, and the German Air Traffic Control after the incident. There can be no talk of a "confusion of responsibilities", said the CDU politician. The real challenge is to constantly keep up to date the capabilities of all parties involved in the detection and defense of highly professional drones.

Behrens wants defense system for Hannover airport

Behrens described the situation at Hannover airport: "Two days ago, we had a difficult incident in Hannover that could not be managed with the deployment command of the federal police." Therefore, "Hannover also needs a system, and I think that is more than justified for Bremen". After a drone was spotted, flight operations at Hannover airport were temporarily suspended on the night of Tuesday.

The federal police are responsible for air security at 13 German commercial airports, including Bremen and Hannover. However, these two airports are not among the eight airports that the Federal Ministry of the Interior has identified as priorities for equipping with stationary technology for the detection and defense of drones.