Bavaria plans to let companies defend against drones

Bavaria plans to launch an initiative allowing companies to use their own systems to defend critical infrastructure against drones, BR reported, as operators also call for changes to data protection and approval rules.

Drones, sabotage and arson attacks are currently making headlines almost daily. Operators of chemical companies, municipal utilities and logistics firms that also carry out contracts for the German armed forces say they often cannot adequately protect their facilities against potential saboteurs under current German data protection rules.

For example, companies generally have to position surveillance cameras so that they record only their own property. Filming beyond a factory fence onto open land or a public road, and storing and analysing those recordings, is usually prohibited. This can make it impossible to detect an approaching drone or notice early that the same people are observing a substation or factory for days.

Network operator Amprion has long criticised these restrictions. In a position paper seen by BR, the company called for critical infrastructure operators to be allowed to monitor their facilities nationwide and lawfully using measures such as drone flights, video surveillance and drone detection, without being held back by disproportionate approval and data protection requirements.

Amprion also called for less bureaucracy around permits, including when companies want to build fences or gates. The Munich and Upper Bavaria Chamber of Industry and Commerce, known as the IHK, likewise told BR that approval and coordination procedures should be simplified. It said the responsibilities of different authorities should be consolidated so that companies ideally have one central government contact who can provide comprehensive advice on threats and possible protective measures.

Johannes Rundfeldt of AG KRITIS, an independent group of security, IT and civil protection experts, said politicians needed to act quickly. He said Germany now had an overarching law on critical infrastructure, but that it was vaguely worded and therefore ineffective. The law’s practical implications for individual companies remain unclear because the necessary implementing regulation has not yet been issued.

The regulation is currently being prepared by the Federal Ministry of the Interior. Earlier reports said it would be introduced in 2028, but there have since been indications that officials in Berlin are working to complete it sooner.

Bavaria’s Minister-President Markus Söder has announced a state law that would allow companies to counter drones using their own resources. At present, companies must notify the police, which is then expected to deal with the drone. It remains unclear how quickly the proposed law can be drafted and adopted.