German industry is increasingly being called upon to take greater responsibility for protecting its critical infrastructure and industrial facilities against surveillance and attacks carried out by drones. According to Matthias Wachter, Co-Head of Innovation, Safety, and Technology at the Federation of German Industries (BDI), government bodies are currently exploring how companies could play a role in drone defense, especially given the limited capacity of state agencies. This has led government representatives to engage in discussions with the nation’s leading business figures.
However, significant unresolved issues remain regarding this initiative. Wachter stressed that fundamentally, the active defense against drones remains a sovereign state responsibility. Nonetheless, due to the vast number of vulnerable industrial sites and critical infrastructure targets, a nationwide protection scheme provided solely by state authorities is realistically unachievable. Furthermore, the BDI has pointed out that the question of who bears legal liability when a drone attack occurs is currently unclear, urging companies to demand clear and legally sound regulations.
In response, the Federation has established a working group focused on safeguarding particularly vulnerable companies. This group includes nearly 100 businesses, ranging from operators of critical infrastructure to providers of drone detection and defensive technologies. The increased significance of this topic for German industry has prompted the BDI to intensify its conversations with these companies.
