Drohnen-Abwehr kostet Millionen

For flight personnel and pilots, it's a horror show: private drones that come close to airplanes when taking off or landing. But effective defense systems are likely to become expensive for airports.

The Federal Ministry of Transport believes that the improvement of drone defense at German airports will cost millions. One-off costs of 30 million euros can be expected per airport, the Federal Ministry of Transport wrote in its response to a small question from the FDP faction, which was presented to the ARD capital's studio. The dpa news agency had previously reported on this. A mobile drone defense should therefore cost about 13 million euros a year.

The ministry does not specify how many airports might require drone defense. According to the German Air Traffic Control, there are 16 international airports in Germany, plus regional airports.

Hamburg Airport View Image source: dpagalerieA pilot drone defense is underway at Hamburg Airport.
Limited drone resources
From the point of view of the Ministry of Transport, the operation of unmanned aerial systems near the airport poses a significant security risk. At the moment, the Federal Police and Federal Criminal Police Office have the technical means to detect, verify and ward off unmanned aircraft, the ministry writes. However, they are "technically limited able" to disrupt the control of drones or "to act physically on them".

The drone ban zone in Germany is 1.5 kilometers around airports and thus significantly less than in Great Britain, where a distance of five kilometers must be maintained. In addition, possibilities are sought how the area of ​​18 kilometers could be protected along entry or departure lanes.

The Ministry of Transport is supporting the development of a drone defense system called "Falcon". At Hamburg Airport, the aim is to test how intruding drones can be tracked down, identified and, if necessary, intercepted so that air traffic is not disrupted. According to air traffic control, 158 cases were reported in 2018 in which drones disrupted air traffic in Germany.

There are currently an estimated more than half a million unregistered private drones in Germany. Since the aircraft, which travel up to 100 kilometers per hour, are very small and difficult to detect by conventional radar, thoughtless amateur pilots, but also terrorists, could cause catastrophic damage with the aircraft.

With information from Georg Schwarte, ARD Capital Studio

Defense against drones at airports will cost millions
Georg Schwarte, ARD Berlin
01/25/2020 11:50 a.m.
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NDR Info reported on this topic on January 25, 2020 at 11:45 a.m.

More on this topic:
EU agency sets regulations for drones, 06/11/2019
Drones are increasingly disrupting air traffic, 01/21/2019