Germany's military may soon be allowed to shoot down unmanned aerial vehicles under a plan announced Wednesday after a string of drone sightings heightened fears of Russian surveillance and sabotage missions.

The changed rules agreed by Chancellor Olaf Scholz's cabinet will still require parliamentary approval before the armed forces can open fire on mystery UAVs that are deemed a threat.

Berlin accuses Moscow of engaging in a multi-pronged "hybrid warfare" campaign with East-West tensions soaring over the Ukraine war in which Germany and its NATO allies have strongly backed Kyiv.

A series of drone sightings over military and industrial sites in Germany has sparked alarm in recent months but has remained unresolved.

The interior ministry said Wednesday that "espionage or sabotage are regularly considered as a possible reason" for the UAV overflights.

Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said that "especially since (Russian President Vladimir) Putin's war of aggression against Ukraine, we have seen that drones are being used more and more frequently".

Under current regulations, German soldiers can assist the police in forcing a UAV to change direction or land, threaten to shoot it down, or fire warning shots.

But under the new proposals, a drone could be shot down if it is believed to pose a threat "against the lives of people or against a critical facility, and the use of armed force is the only means of averting this present danger", the ministry said.

Several drones have recently been spotted near the US airbase in Ramstein in western Germany and at an industrial zone near the North Sea.
This week, Bavarian police said they were looking into incidents in which UAVs had flown over military installations in Manching and Neuburg an der Donau.

The Manching site hosts a military aerodrome and is where the Eurofighter jet is developed by Airbus.

This ministry said that the advanced technology of many of the drones spotted recently "is presenting police authorities with ever greater challenges".

"This applies above all to models with sophisticated flight characteristics, whose performance far exceeds that of commercially available drones," it said, adding that such devices "may be used on behalf of foreign state agencies".

The changes must still be voted through parliament before becoming law. For that to happen before Germany's February 23 elections, Scholz's minority government will need the support of opposition parties.

Government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit said he believed it was "quite possible" for the law to pass because "what is being regulated here is undisputed".

Germany has been on high alert for Russian espionage but also other interference, including cyberattacks and disinformation spread on social media, against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine.

In May last year, a German former soldier was sentenced to three and a half years in jail for sharing secret military information with Russia.

In April, two German-Russian men were arrested on suspicion of spying for Russia and planning attacks in Germany -- including on US army targets -- to undermine military support for Ukraine.

Germany and other countries have also suspected Russia is behind a series of incidents in the Baltic Sea in which seafloor telecom and other cables have been severed.

And last week, Germany's Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock charged that an oil tanker adrift off its northern coast and then towed to a port was part of Moscow's sanctions-busting "shadow fleet".

(AFP)

Berlin plans to let army shoot down drones amid Russia tensions