Phantom in the Sky
Short answer: No one – not Berlin, not the police, not NATO – can yet say who is steering the mysterious drones seen over German military sites.
But a leaked, still-unconfirmed BKA report, whispers of Russian espionage, and a sudden jump from two dozen drone cases in 2024 to 270 sightings with 536 separate drones in only the first three months of 2025 have shaken security planners. Dive in to see what is fact, what is guesswork, and why those numbers don’t add up.
1. The Leak That Lit the Fuse
Late April, several media outlets – first Bild, then Euronews and the defence blog Defence-Network – quoted a “geheimer Lagebericht Tatmittel Drohne” (secret situation report, tool: drone) from the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA).
The document, they said, was born inside the State Security Division in Meckenheim, NRW – a well-known BKA outpost.
The leaks agree on three explosive lines:
- 270 separate drone incidents in Q1 2025
- 536 individual drones involved
- Targets: military bases, arms factories, LNG ports, power plants, even the U.S. Air Base Ramstein
Those numbers are now ricocheting through talk shows and parliamentary hearings – yet the BKA has never released the paper, nor confirmed a single digit.
2. What We Can Actually Verify
| Claim from the leak | Evidence | Confidence |
|---|---|---|
| BKA State Security sits in Meckenheim | Public BKA organigram & parliamentary files | High |
| A confidential BKA report on drones exists | Consistent leaks in ≥3 outlets; no denial by BKA | Medium |
| 270 sightings / 536 drones, Q1 2025 | Same figure quoted in all leaks, but no primary doc | Low–Medium |
| Drones flew over German military & critical sites | Multiple confirmed individual cases (Ramstein, Husum) | High |
| Investigators know who is behind it | Contradicted by Interior Ministry & Correctiv | Low |
3. The Numbers Game – Why 270 ≠ 24
Investigative outlet Correctiv tracked only 24 criminal investigations for spy drones in the whole of 2024.
So how do we jump to 270 incidents in just 90 days?
Possible explanations:
-
Different yardsticks:
“Sighting” (every time someone sees a drone) vs. “investigation” (opened only when police collect evidence). -
New reporting rules: In January 2025, the Interior Ministry quietly told regional police to log every drone near a security-sensitive site. No historic baseline exists.
-
Leak inflation? Without the primary report, no one outside the BKA can check for double counts.
Bottom line: The scale may be serious – but the exact figure is still foggy.
4. The Prime Suspects – and the Gaps in the Case
Authorities, when pressed, mention only “hybrid actors”. Unofficially, fingers point at Russia. Here’s what we know:
- Ramstein, 8 Jan 2025 – Drone swarm photographed. Military analysts told Tagesschau the flight paths matched previous Russian GRU tactics. No pilot caught.
- Husum Air Base, several nights – Radar picked up quadcopters. When police arrived, they were gone.
- Ten pilots identified nationwide (Euronews). All were hobbyists; none linked to Moscow.
So far, no seized controller, no GPS log, no confession ties a state actor to the majority of flights.
5. Why It Matters
- Germany hosts U.S. nuclear warheads (Büchel) and command nodes for Ukraine logistics (Wiesbaden).
- LNG terminals and offshore cables are new lifelines after the cut-off of Russian gas.
- Cheap drones can carry cameras today – explosives tomorrow.
Yet the lack of solid attribution hampers a response: Is this war-probing? Corporate espionage? Curious teens? Policy diverges drastically depending on the answer.
6. What Happens Next?
- Bundestag committees have requested the full BKA report. Interior officials hint it may be declassified “in parts.”
- The government is testing radio-jamming bubbles around key installations – but civil aviation voices fear interference.
- EU partners push for shared drone-tracking radar; France will host a demo in July.
7. Takeaways for the Reader
- Yes, drones keep popping up over sensitive German sites.
- No, we still don’t know who is flying most of them.
- The headline numbers (270 sightings, 536 drones) come from a leak, not an official release.
- Real investigations are sparse, and confirmed espionage cases even rarer.
Until the BKA opens its files – or one of those phantom pilots is caught red-handed – the sky over Germany will remain full of questions.
Sources (all accessed June 2025)
– BKA organisational chart (Wikipedia)
– Bild leak report: https://www.bild.de/regional/nordrhein-westfalen/geheimer-bka-bericht-500-spionage-drohnen-ueber-deutschland-689332b0ecb6874199e8cdb3
– Euronews: https://de.euronews.com/next/2025/08/08/bka-drohnen
– Defence-Network analysis: https://defence-network.com/tatmittel-drohne-bka-spionage-deutschland
– German Government press conference 15 Jan 2025: https://www.bundesregierung.de/breg-de/suche/regierungspressekonferenz-vom-15-januar-2025-2330340
– Correctiv investigation: https://correctiv.org/hybride-kriegsfuehrung/2025/02/18/spionage-drohnen-ueber-deutschland
– Tagesschau Ramstein report: https://www.tagesschau.de/inland/regional/rheinlandpfalz/swr-drohnen-ueber-der-air-base-ramstein-100.html