BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany recorded its highest number of drone sightings over military bases in October, a senior intelligence official said, with a growing focus on naval installations.
Previously, drones had often been spotted over army and air force bases, including those training Ukrainian troops.
In January, German police launched an investigation into suspected Russian espionage after drones were spotted over several military bases in Bavaria.
“The Bundeswehr (armed forces) has critical infrastructure.
At the moment, it is mainly the navy which is affected (by drone sightings) among the branches of the military,” Torsten Akmann, vice president of Germany’s military intelligence service BAMAD, told Reuters in a rare public comment.
Akmann did not disclose any specific figures and did not suggest any reasons for the apparent shift of focus towards naval installations.
Germany has the largest Western navy in the Baltic region.
The Baltic has gained greater significance for NATO since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, prompting Baltic littoral states Sweden and Finland to join the Western military alliance. Russia’s own Baltic fleet is stationed near the exclave of Kaliningrad.
The naval base of Wilhelmshaven, on the North Sea, is the Bundeswehr’s largest garrison.
It also handles repairs and maintenance of the fleet and is pivotal for operations in the North and Baltic Seas.
Securing open sea routes through the Baltic Sea is vital to the alliance as they might constitute the only supply line to the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania if the narrow overland corridor linking them to Poland, and thus the rest of NATO territory, were blocked in any conflict with Russia.
To bolster NATO’s readiness in the region, Germany inaugurated a multi-national naval headquarters in 2024 that can lead NATO operations in the Baltic Sea during any conflict.
(Reporting by Dmitry Antonov, Vladimir Soldatkin and Anastasia Lyrchikova in Moscow and Krisztina Than in Budapest; writing by Mark Trevelyan, Editing by Louise Heavens)
