Germany is to open a new Drone Safety Technology Center on Tuesday to research and develop new technologies for drone security and test them under realistic conditions.
Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt, Research Minister Dorothee Bär and Sven Schulze, premier of the state of Saxony-Anhalt, will attend the opening at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) site in Cochstedt to the north-west of Leipzig.
Together with the DLR site in Braunschweig, it will create a facility described as unique in Germany in combining science and with practical security requirements.
The need for the facility was highlighted recently at Leipzig/Halle Airport, where a drone armed with explosives was discovered among several Ukrainian cargo aircraft. The drone was reportedly controlled in a way that made it difficult for conventional detection systems to identify it.
Prosecutors have described the incident as a "serious attack on Germany's transport and logistics infrastructure," and German federal and state interior ministers have called for faster progress in establishing effective drone defences.
The technology centre is part of a broader drone defence strategy that Dobrindt has discussed with state-level interior ministers. One element is a drone defence unit within the Federal Police.
A second component is a joint federal-state drone defence centre, where various security agencies and other institutions will exchange information and coordinate efforts.
Research in Cochstedt represents the third component. The centre will test technologies for the safe use of drones, as well as technologies for detecting and defending against aircraft being used for malicious purposes.