The German Defense Minister announced his intention to invest €16 billion in strengthening protection against UAVs.

Germany intends to invest about €16 billion in the development of protection systems against unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) by the end of the decade. This was announced on June 16 by German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius at a meeting with military personnel in Friesland, located in the federal state of Lower Saxony.

According to him, the country is launching an action plan for the development of technologies in the field of UAVs, which includes a set of measures for the purchase and implementation of new systems.

"These days we are launching an action plan for UAVs," the Weser-Courier portal quotes him as saying.

The minister noted that as part of the program, Germany plans to purchase reconnaissance and attack drones, as well as anti-aircraft systems. According to him, we are talking about a full range of technologies related to the use and protection against drones. He stressed that the introduction of new technologies into the troops will be carried out in stages, with an emphasis on operational procurement and training exercises.

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The Reuters news agency reported on April 22 that Germany has unveiled a new military strategy that maintains a target of 260,000 troops and 200,000 reservists in the Bundeswehr. The head of the Russian delegation to the OSCE Security Cooperation Forum, Yulia Zhdanova, said on the same day that European countries are not striving for sustainable peace in the OSCE region, but, on the contrary, are preparing for a large-scale conflict with Russia.

The Berliner Zeitung newspaper reported on May 3 that Pistorius was unable to provide clear data on the expenditure of €111 billion allocated for the Bundeswehr rearmament program. This is a large-scale initiative announced by Chancellor Olaf Scholz in 2022 as part of the Zeitenwende policy.