Bundeswehr drones
The Bundeswehr drones are unmanned flying objects (some aircraft) with reconnaissance equipment on board and are used to scout out enemies and enemy objects. In June 2013, the Bundeswehr had around 580 drones of various types (between 3.5 kilograms and 1.5 tons) at its disposal, of which, according to the German government, 60 unmanned aerial vehicles were used on missions abroad in Afghanistan and Kosovo . Other sources report 871 drones in the Bundeswehr. Germany is one of 45 countries around the world that are developing military drones for their own purposes.
The German air force operates large Heron 1 reconnaissance drones (MALEs) , the army reconnaissance uses small and medium-sized systems for targeting, and the navy would like to use small drones on their K130 corvettes .
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If the Bundeswehr only suffered a setback with the Euro Hawk affair , plans are known as of 2018 to acquire a similar type of drone, the MQ-4 Triton (Pegasus).
Now houses the European MALE RPAS at Airbus Defense and Space , a European drone for the Bundeswehr in development.
history
The development of drones ( Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, UAV) began in the German armed forces for reconnaissance purposes in the air force as well as for target recognition and reconnaissance by the army.
As early as 1960, the battlefield reconnaissance with drones began at the Celle-Wietzenbruch air base .
In the 1980s, the Bundeswehr used so-called target display drones as a flight target when training flak gunners with the 20 mm flak.
The drone, which is still used today, was developed for army reconnaissance as early as the 1990s. The companies STN Atlas Elektronik, Dynamit Nobel and French / UK Matra BAe Dynamics had merged to form the GIE Eurodrone consortium. The development was financed 60 percent by Germany and 40 percent by France. From the preparation for series production, KZO was continued as a "national program" of the German Army and decided in 2001 by the Bundestag. By 2008, six complete systems, each with ten drones, had a total value of 300 million euros. The first series system was handed over to the Bundeswehr on November 28, 2005 in Bremen by today's general contractor Rheinmetall Defense Electronics (RDE). The first drone introduced into the Bundeswehr was the CL 89 (Canadair) at the 4th battery in the observation battalions of the reconnaissance artillery. There were five batteries in total. Period of use: 1972–1992
The Canadair CL-289 drone was purchased as a reconnaissance drone back in 1990 . The drone developed by Canadair and Dornier has a serial camera and a scanning device in the spectrum of infrared radiation (infrared line scanner, IRLS-Infrared Line Scanning for short). The components for direct image data transmission come from the French company SAT (now Sagem ). The reconnaissance system starts with the help of a solid rocket; the booster has a thrust of 32 kN. In flight, the drone is powered by a Rolls-Royce T-117 turbojet engine. This compact single-shaft engine has a thrust of 1.03 kN. Like the smaller Bundeswehr drones, the device flies a pre-programmed course independently. The navigation was geo-referenced with global positioning system support (GPS). After the flight, the drone lands on a parachute on two landing pads. On March 18, 2009, the last flight of the CL-289 drone took place at the NATO military training area in Bergen. The system was decommissioned by the end of 2009. The reconnaissance system was used in both the Bundeswehr (army) and the French army.
On January 31, 2007, the Federal Office for Defense Technology and Procurement (BWB) , as well as the Friedrichshafen-based EuroHawk GmbH as the contracting agency for the EADS and Northrop Grumman groups, received the order to supply a prototype of the modified Hawk system (RQ-4E) in 2010 This also included the option of equipping four more systems with EADS-SIGINT equipment and putting them into operation between 2011 and 2014. The contract had a volume of 430 million euros at the time of completion, other sources even spoke of 1.3 billion euros. The flight operations are to be carried out by the reconnaissance wing 51 "Immelmann" from Schleswig Air Base .
The RQ-4E was built by Skunk Works in Palmdale / Lancaster, California, and flown to Germany for equipment without the SIGINT system. The final equipment, testing and handover to the Bundeswehr then took place at the EADS location in Manching . On July 21st, 2011, the first machine to equip the reconnaissance electronics arrived in Manching, and on October 12th, 2011 the Euro-Hawk reconnaissance drone was presented to the German public there. So far, only the prototype is in use by the Bundeswehr. On January 11, 2013, the drone completed its first test flight over Germany without any difficulties. Due to unsolved safety and approval issues, the EuroHawk program was terminated in May 2013. According to estimates by the Air Force, subsequent approval of the drone would cost between 500 and 600 million euros. The reconnaissance sensors developed are to be installed in a different type of aircraft.
In mid-2009, the Israeli Heron drone , along with the US RQ-1 Predator , was selected for the accelerated procurement of a reconnaissance drone for use by the German Armed Forces in Afghanistan . The Bundeswehr decided to lease three Heron (Luftwaffe designation Heron 1 ) from the beginning of 2010 for 110 million euros for three years from a consortium (consisting of Rheinmetall and IAI). After that, all three aircraft should be returned to the manufacturer. According to the three-year lease term, the contract would have expired on October 31, 2012. Since the procurement of its own HALE UAV is still pending, the leasing contract for 75 million euros was extended by two years until October 2014 in July 2012. In 2012, EADS subsidiary Cassidian worked on the development of a European drone, the so-called Talarion . It should be used for both military and civil purposes.
Future development
The Federal Office for Defense Technology and Procurement launched a competition in 2008 to determine which of the existing MALE drones should become part of the Bundeswehr's UAV programs. According to the Bundeswehr Plan 2008, the program for the drones consists of several components. Regarding the importance and future of drones for the Bundeswehr, the Bundeswehr plan states:
"Due to the technological development of unmanned aerial vehicles / drones and autonomous underwater vehicles, a wide range of capabilities with conceptual significance can be covered with these systems in the future (...) These systems will play an ever greater role not only as reconnaissance and sensor carriers, but also as weapons carriers . "
According to the BWB, the German UAV program should consist of different parts. By 2014, the EuroHawk drone was supposed to replace the previous manned surveillance aircraft of the BR 1150 M ( Breguet Atlantic ) as the HALE UAV . Like the aircraft, the Hawk was intended to be used for SIGINT missions, i.e. to intercept radio and radar signals. It was the same type that was to be used in the course of the NATO Alliance Ground Surveillance (AGS) ground reconnaissance program . The system cost 430 million euros and, with a wing span of around 40 meters, was almost the size of the Air Force Airbus A310 of the Federal Ministry of Defense . The US Army has already used the drone under the name Global Hawk in Iraq and Afghanistan. In the medium term, this drone will gradually complement the expensive AWACS reconnaissance flights and eventually replace them.
In May 2013, the FAZ reported that the Federal Ministry of Defense under Minister de Maizière had pushed ahead with the billion-dollar program for the procurement of the Euro Hawk reconnaissance drone, although the Ministry had known years before that the aircraft would not be approved for German and European airspace . According to information from the FAZ, the authorities and agencies involved in the procurement of the drone had known for years that the legal obstacles that prevent approval for European airspace can hardly be removed. According to information from an air force expert, the Bundeswehr had invested 1.3 billion euros by this time, according to FAZ. The money went to the American arms company Northrop Grumman , which builds the drone, and to the European EADS group, which developed the reconnaissance technology. Another million euros flowed into the conversion of the Schleswig Air Force base . The five Euro Hawk should be stationed there from 2014 onwards. The further development of the project was open in May 2013.
According to the Ministry of Defense, the sensor technology developed for the "Euro Hawk" by the armaments company Cassidian is ultra-modern. Therefore it was considered to build the technology into other aircraft. Specifically, a ministry spokesman named the USA's Lockheed U-2 reconnaissance aircraft, which is already quite old . This vision was clearly doubted by experts. Around 300 million euros were spent by the public sector on the development of the drone that was not purchased.
Combat drones
In 2012, the purchase of combat drones was discussed in military circles . Consideration was given to purchasing the American Reaper drones for the German Bundeswehr. The Department of Defense obtained a bid for the procurement. A decision has not yet been made (as of July 2012) and several options are being examined. The drone should possibly replace the leased Heron 1 . Both the Reaper and the procurement alternative, the Heron successor, the Heron TP , can be equipped with air-to-surface missiles .
In February 2013 , Der Spiegel reported to Cassidian that the armaments division of EADS said it could equip the Bundeswehr's "Heron" drones with weapons within a few months. In 2010 the Bundeswehr leased three copies of the Israeli "Heron". Armaments experts believe that the Israelis are already using the "Heron" of the armaments company IAI in armed versions. According to Spiegel, the Bundeswehr could "benefit" from this know-how. A Cassidian spokesman told Hamburg magazine: "A conversion of the 'Heron 1' would be technically possible in six to twelve months". The certification by the Bundeswehr and the training of soldiers could take place in parallel. Cassidian has so far been responsible for the maintenance of the German "Heron" drones. The converted "Heron" could carry a weapon load of about a hundred kilograms. The payload of the larger "Predator" is 200 kilograms, which is enough for two " Hellfire " rockets, each weighing 46 kilograms . The much larger "Reaper", on the other hand, can carry almost 1.4 tons of weapons. The converted "Heron" would therefore only be an interim solution: Industry circles said that the Bundeswehr was aiming for the procurement of much more powerful drones in the long term. Such a "final qualification" is not expected before 2020.
The Rheinmetall Defense Electronics group had already developed the Taifun drone , a weapon-carrying system in the vicinity of the Bundeswehr. It should serve to search, identify and precisely combat individual military objects. The 160 kg aircraft would have had an average mission speed of 200 km / h and the use of an infrared camera or radar search head would have enabled reliable target identification using high-resolution images even at night or in bad weather. The image data would have been sent from the drone to the ground station via a bug-proof radio link. The aircraft had a planned payload capacity of approx. 50 kg, a maximum altitude of 4,000 m and a maximum total flight time of four hours. The core of the drone's capabilities would have been the autonomous processing of the information by the on-board computer, which would have enabled the autonomous detection of preprogrammed target types. Technical problems, high costs and the completely unclear legal situation in the case of an autonomous attack decision by an unmanned system led to the discontinuation of the project. However, the company is working on a system with the development name Tactical Advanced Recce Strike System , which should be completely controlled by a manned ground station.
The German Navy is planning to purchase the Camcopter S-100 from Schiebel (Austria) as a supplement for the close range and in the low-flight segment of air surveillance . It is to be used in the future on the K130 corvettes of the German Navy. The model can also be equipped with light rocket launchers . The mini-helicopter can carry a load of up to 50 kg. B. be equipped with various cameras and the Thales rocket launcher. In addition to the United Arab Emirates , the combat equipment was also sold to the Khamis Brigade (former bodyguard of Muammar al-Gaddafi in Libya) and the Chinese People's Liberation Army .
Decided acquisitions and developments from 2013 to 2017
In September 2012, the Bundestag discussed the Bundeswehr's financial plan for 2013 to 2017, in which 168 million euros are earmarked for three new drones including a ground station. 660 million euros are planned for the German part in the development of a European UAV.
In January 2013, then Defense Minister de Maizière announced that the Bundeswehr would purchase combat drones. This led to criticism from the opposition parties SPD, the Greens and the left. However, various parliamentarians of the FDP spoke out against the acquisition.
Development of MALE2020
At the International Aerospace Exhibition 2014 in Berlin, the German-French aviation company Airbus Defense and Space , the French company Dassault and the Italian company Alenia Aermacchi are presenting a new European drone project called Male 2020 ( European MALE RPAS ) according to research by the ARD capital studio and advertised with the federal government .
The companies then submitted an offer to the defense ministries of France, Germany and Italy for the formulation of a European drone program for medium altitude and long flight times (MALE). In a definition phase, the governments, the armed forces and the corporations of the three countries should jointly formulate and coordinate their requirements for a European drone development program. This also includes, above all, financial planning and the issue of arming the drone.
According to ARD information, the advance of the industry is related to the coalition agreement between the CDU / CSU and the SPD that has come into force. The need for a European drone has already been determined there: “Unmanned aerial vehicles are already playing an important role in the reconnaissance and protection of our soldiers in the Bundeswehr mission in Afghanistan. The Bundeswehr will continue to be dependent on such capabilities in the future. The coalition will advance European development for unmanned aerial vehicles. "
Types
The Bundeswehr has several models of small (MAV) and medium-sized (MALE) drones.
MAVs
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The Bundeswehr started its unmanned aerial reconnaissance with the light drones. The so-called Micro Air Vehicles (MAV) are UAVs or small aircraft with a maximum size of 50 cm. Main areas of application for MAVs are intelligence and military reconnaissance. They are difficult to spot because of their small size.
One of the army's MAV drones is the EMT Aladin , also a reconnaissance drone from the German company EMT. The name Aladin is an acronym for their description and stands for imaging airborne reconnaissance drone in the immediate vicinity . After the Army Reconnaissance Force ordered 115 drone systems in March 2005, this drone was developed. On October 19, 2005, the first serial system ALADIN was handed over to the armored troop school in Munster.
MIKADO is also one of them.
MALEs
Soon the Bundeswehr also acquired MALE-UAS ( medium altitude, long-endurance ), i.e. devices that either require a runway or a catapult as a launch platform. They fly at an average altitude of around 10 to 15 kilometers and achieve a maximum of 24 to 48 hours of continuous flight time.
For the artillery and army reconnaissance troops of the German Army, the KZO ( small aircraft target location , formerly: Brevel ) was developed for real-time target location. The propeller-driven drone is all-weather capable and delivers images via radio in real time to a ground station. The platform has an IR camera and delivers high-resolution videos even at night. The range of the drone system was chosen in such a way that its operational radius matches the range of modern artillery systems such as B. the Panzerhaubitze 2000 surpasses. It is 100 km (allowed and approved). Technically, a radius of 140 km would be possible. The system is absolutely immune to interference up to a radius of 65 km! LUNA or its successor HUSAR from EMT cannot offer this! In general it must be said that the systems from EMT are sailors. This has the disadvantage that the wind speeds and the TAS are always lower than with the UAS KZO. The KZO should therefore not be replaced by a HUSAR system. A supplement would make more sense.
The drone is started by a launch vehicle from a container using a solid rocket engine (booster). The course of the drone is firmly programmed. The flight course can also be changed during the flight from the ground control station by radio. The camera is controlled from the ground station. The landing takes place on a parachute. Airbags cushion the impact when they hit the ground. The aircraft is ready for use again after a few hours. Each system consists of two ground systems, five recovery systems and ten drones.
The army acquired the EMT LUNA drone in 2003 . LUNA stands for airborne unmanned close-up reconnaissance equipment . The drone was developed from October 1997 in a cooperation between the German company EMT and the Federal Office for Defense Technology and Procurement. The first deployment in Kosovo followed in 2000, and in 2003 the system was regularly put into service by the Bundeswehr. In 2009 the 5,000th mission was flown with the system.
The LUNA drone is used for imaging reconnaissance at close range of up to 40 km and its essential capabilities are to discover, locate, identify and track stationary and moving objects and targets on the ground. The Bundeswehr has already procured four LUNA systems, and by 2012 their number had increased to a total of eight. A LUNA system consists of the launch catapult, a ground control station and three to four drones. The LUNA drone can transmit real-time surveillance recordings to the ground station for three to four hours from a height of four kilometers using SAR radar and digital photo, video and infrared cameras.
The Bundeswehr has also leased three Heron 1 reconnaissance drones from Israel for the Afghanistan mission . These devices are assigned to the reconnaissance squadron 51 “Immelmann” (AG 51) .
HALEs
In addition, the Bundeswehr is striving to acquire HALE drones ( high altitude longe endurance ) that can fly up to 20 kilometers. They have a flight radius of several hundred kilometers.
WABEP network system
A network system of reconnaissance and combat drones operates under the name WABEP (active agent for the remote combat of single and point targets ). The test series of the system for the Bundeswehr was completed by September 2011. The KZO ( small aircraft targeting ) from Rheinmetall is coupled with the IAI Harop combat drone from the Israeli partner company Israel Aircraft Industries . The Harop is an enlarged version of the IAI Harpy and is equipped with 23 kg of explosives. It is designed to actively destroy predetermined targets with a kamikaze attack. It is dependent on reconnaissance by other systems, but it also delivers data and live images to the ground site using optical and infrared cameras. The drone has so far been bought by India and Israel.
The KZO's camera system and other reconnaissance components (sonar sensors, etc.) are used in this system for the reconnaissance and identification of targets. As a weapon, the Harop aircraft takes on the precise combat of the assigned enemy object and destroys itself in the process.
In a statement by the federal government, however, it is denied that the system is a combat drone system:
"The non-reusable effective system for the distance-able combat of single and point targets (WABEP) is not a UAV, but an active agent (ammunition) that enables the 'shooter' to observe the target until shortly before the impact, to report and if necessary the attack cancel. "
Duration
According to the Bundeswehr, the stock (as of June 27, 2013) is as follows:
| Type | Duration | singled out | destroyed | crashed from it | missing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aladdin | 290 | 0 | 22nd | 6th | 8th |
| CL-289 | 0 | 189 | 23 | 13 | 8th |
| Heron 1 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| KZO | 43 | 0 | 12 | 9 | 6th |
| Luna | 81 | 0 | 41 | 22nd | 11 |
| mikado | 164 | 20th | 2 | 2 | 2 |
Purposes
- Optical reconnaissance (EMT LUNA, EMT Aladin, Heron 1)
- Target acquisition (KZO (small aircraft target location))
- Signal Intelligence (currently none)
- Weapon system carrier (Heron 1 possible, Euro-Hawk possible)
- Ordnance (single use) (IAI Harop)
Documented missions
The Bundeswehr began its first trials with UAVs in the Kosovo mission in 2000. Bundeswehr drones are used on a larger scale in the ISAF mission in Afghanistan.
Kosovo
In 1998 and 1999, the Bundeswehr used reconnaissance drones outside of Germany for the first time in the Kosovo war. First, the CL 289 drone was used. From 2000 LUNA was also used.
Macedonia
2000 Use of the newly developed LUNA MALE drone.
ISAF
As of February 2013, the Bundeswehr was using a number of drones in Afghanistan. With the Heron 1 large drone, stationed in Mazar-i-Sharif, she monitors the entire north of the country and thus the area where the Germans are deployed. Smaller “Luna” and “Aladin” drones are also on site. The "eye" system overlooks shorter distances and serves as an unmanned vanguard for the troops. The Bundeswehr also monitors some of its properties with permanently installed, unarmed reconnaissance balloons .
The KZO drone system has been in use in the Kunduz area of Afghanistan since the end of July 2009. The observation tank artillery battalion 131 from Mühlhausen / Thuringia is the first unit to use the KZO system abroad. From January 2010 the Artillery Training Regiment 345 from Kusel followed .
In February 2010 the first Heron 1 was relocated to Afghanistan and was successfully deployed on March 18, 2010 by the Mazar-e Sharif squadron . After landing at Mazar-e Sharif airport, the Heron collided with a parked Transall C-160 while taxiing to the parking position , after the drone had accelerated due to incorrect operation by the pilot. In the accident, the Heron 1 was destroyed and the Transall was slightly damaged. Due to the procurement as a leasing business, the industry is obliged to replace the damaged UAV.
In January 2011 a Heron 1 was controlled for the first time via satellite transmission as part of the “gradual growth of the system” (the synthetic aperture radar was not available from the start). This significantly expanded the UAV's operating range and made use of the drone's full range of services. At the beginning of June 2011, a total of 4,000 flight hours had been achieved with the Heron system on over 400 days of use. At the end of July 2012, she reached the mark of 10,000 flight hours with over 890 missions over Afghanistan. A few weeks earlier, the leasing contract was extended by two years to October 2014 for EUR 75 million.
Legal situation and ethical discussion
The use of American drones against suspected terrorists in Pakistan is politically and under international law highly controversial. Some civilians are also killed in these operations, which has so far remained without any consequences for the responsible military or secret service agents.
The use of combat drones by military forces is also viewed critically because a German citizen was allegedly killed by a US drone on October 4, 2010 in Pakistan. The Federal Prosecutor's Office has been investigating the case since 2012. The first question to be clarified is whether the use of drones complied with the rules of international conflict law. The investigation is directed against "unknown".
When asked whether a “drone war is ethically responsible”, Defense Minister Thomas de Maizière told Märkische Allgemeine on August 6, 2012 :
“It makes no difference whether you shoot with a pistol or a rifle, launch a torpedo, release a bomb or use a drone armed with missiles. One can call it humiliating active agents . Ethically, everything is to be judged in the same way.
But there may be a difference: modern technology is characterized by the fact that it hits more precisely and does not appear over a large area. [...] That doesn't just apply to drones, but as a whole. It is a professional but also an ethical goal to avoid civil damage, injuries or even killing of bystanders. That is why I think the criticism that weapons are particularly accurate is completely wrong from an ethical point of view. Just the other way round: You are ethically no better, but it is definitely better to be more precise. "
An initiative from pastors addressed Thomas de Maizière in a statement in June 2013 and raised the following concerns:
"These remotely controlled missiles armed with live ammunition are not permitted under international law because they cannot clearly differentiate between resistance fighters and civilians at any time and anywhere."
A broad public ethical discussion in the true sense of the word has not yet occurred in Germany. New publications on the subject appear almost constantly in the Anglo-American region. Bernhard Koch weighs the pros and cons in an article for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, which leads him to the end:
"It is illusory to assume that the revolution in military technology, which is hidden behind terms such as military robotics, cyber war or the militarization of space and which drones are currently only the tip of an iceberg, poses no threat to the prevailing world order. "
The question that the military and society must answer is whether there is a willingness to stand up for the goals that are to be achieved by military means, also by taking personal risks.
Political discussion
While German public opinion for combat drones is low, in 2012 defense politicians from the Union government and opposition were open to the wishes of the German military, such as the USA , Great Britain or Italy, to purchase armed drones. The Federal Ministry of Defense, led by Minister Thomas de Maizière, announced in mid-2012 that the purchase of armed drones should be examined.
A majority of CDU / CSU politicians are in favor of such systems. However, the defense policy spokesman for the SPD in the Bundestag, Rainer Arnold , also spoke out in favor:
“This is a weapon system that the future belongs to. [...] In the long term, there will be no avoiding the acquisition of armed drones. "
The missiles should be developed jointly in Europe. They could then be available to the Bundeswehr from around 2020. At the end of September 2012, the Bundestag's defense commissioner , Hellmut Königshaus ( FDP ), also called for the Bundeswehr to use armed drones for missions abroad. The royal family argued with the self-protection of the Bundeswehr soldiers abroad:
“If our soldiers had armed drones at their disposal, they would no longer have to watch helplessly when our own people are threatened. You could then intervene and drive away the enemy without endangering life and health of your own strength. "
The background to this was the deliberations of the Bundestag's budget committee on the Bundeswehr budget for 2013 and the four-year financial plan. Funding for possible drone systems is also set out in this plan. In February 2013, various FDP members of the Bundestag spoke out against the coalition's intention to purchase combat drones. Hartfrid Wolff (FDP), then chairman of the working group inside and law of the FDP parliamentary group and member of the parliamentary control body for the secret services , told the taz:
“Yes, I am uncomfortable that wars are spreading and the use of drones in the operational area leads to a constant feeling of threat . And not only among those whom you want to fight, for example the insurgents in Afghanistan, but also among the civilian population. This in turn could lead to radicalization and have negative consequences for Germans on the ground. In addition, Germany seldom acts alone abroad, but in association with other countries. It is therefore important that we determine where the limits are. [...] "
The politicians will impose high hurdles on the Bundeswehr before the opposition is ready to approve the armaments project because the US perceived the use of combat drones to be very undifferentiated.
Social impact
Experts point to the serious social effects of the increasing use of unmanned missiles (combat drones) in the current wars. This reduces the political inhibition threshold for military intervention, since there is no longer any fear of losing one's own soldiers in combat. Critics also warn that in the future war will appear as a kind of computer game and will no longer be perceived as threatening by the population of the warring countries.
Reference is also made to the risk of serious mental illness in soldiers who control combat drones from a distance of several thousand kilometers. While on the one hand they carry out targeted killings, on the other hand they go about a normal everyday life, which leads to a loss of reality and permanent stress .
literature
- Reinhard Scholzen : Army reconnaissance . Motorbuch-Verlag, Stuttgart 2012. ISBN 978-3-613-03408-2 .
- High-Tech Wars - Peace and Security in Times of Drones, Combat Robots and Digital Warfare , Ed. Heinrich Böll Foundation Berlin 2013, Volume 36 of the Writings on Democracy, ISBN 978-3-86928-116-2 .
Web links
- KZO in Afghanistan, BW promotion video
- Bernhard Koch: Life under drones , Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung February 2, 2014
- Ulrike Franke: Proliferated Drones, A Perspective on Germany, http://drones.cnas.org/reports/a-perspective-on-germany/ , Center for a New American Security, 2016
Individual evidence
- ↑ Sabine Beikler: Weapons without a face: Where does the Bundeswehr use drones? In: tagesspiegel.de . February 1, 2013, accessed May 2, 2020 .
- ↑ dpa: UAV: Every seventh Bundeswehr drone crashed. In: Zeit Online. June 22, 2013. Retrieved June 29, 2013 .
- ↑ Archived copy ( Memento from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ http://www.journeyman.tv/63442/short-films/attack-of-the-drones.html Attack of the Drones - USA 2012
- ^ Matthias Monroy: Too good to throw away: the giant drone “Euro Hawk” is to be sold. May 23, 2018, accessed on June 23, 2019 (German).
- ↑ Battlefield reconnaissance with drones
- ↑ Tagesschau: Ministry stops giant drone. May 14, 2013, accessed May 14, 2013 .
- ↑ Why “Heron 1” won after all , Handelsblatt dated June 21, 2009
- ↑ Marco Seliger: Euro Hawk is not allowed. In: FAZ.net . May 13, 2013, accessed October 13, 2018 .
- ^ Matthias Gebauer: "Euro Hawk": drone debacle puts de Maizière under pressure. In: Spiegel Online . May 15, 2013, accessed May 2, 2020 .
- ↑ Markus Becker: Arming the Bundeswehr: EADS promises combat drones within a year. SPIEGEL ONLINE GmbH, January 25, 2013, accessed on March 6, 2013 .
- ↑ Own drones for the Bundeswehr? ( Memento from May 19, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) tagesschau.de, May 18, 2014.
- ↑ WABEP demonstrator flights successfully completed. In: Flugrevue. September 5, 2011, accessed June 29, 2013 .
- ↑ Printed matter 16/12481 - Introduction and significance of unmanned military vehicles and aircraft. (PDF; 132.89 kB) German Bundestag, June 3, 2009, accessed on June 29, 2013 .
- ↑ Overview: Bundeswehr drones and drone losses. Federal Ministry of Defense, Press and Information Office, June 27, 2013, accessed on June 29, 2013 .
- ↑ Sabine Beikler: Weapons without a face: Where does the Bundeswehr use drones? In: tagesspiegel.de . February 1, 2013, accessed May 2, 2020 .
- ↑ Reinhard Scholzen : Reconnaissance Artillery. In: Truppendienst 2, 2014, pp. 146–150.
- ↑ German Heron UAV damaged in ground collision on flightglobal.com
- ↑ Luftwaffe: Heron reaches the 4,000th flight hour onflugrevue.de
- ↑ Heron 1: 10,000 flight hours over Afghanistan . Flugrevue. July 30, 2012. Retrieved August 10, 2012.
- ↑ Air Force: Heron 1 flies longer in Afghanistan . Flugrevue. July 13, 2012. Retrieved August 10, 2012.
- ↑ It is better to be more precise ( memento of February 6, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ) August 6, 2012
- ^ Pastors condemn combat drones - Economy in Bremen: Latest news. In: weser-kurier.de. June 5, 2013, accessed May 2, 2020 .
- ↑ Bettina Vestring: Bundeswehr can hope for combat drones. In: fr.de . July 30, 2012, accessed May 2, 2020 .
- ↑ ntv.de, sba / dpa: Greens against combat drones. In: n-tv.de. September 24, 2012, accessed May 2, 2020 .
- ↑ Hartfrid Wolff: FDP politicians on drone plans: “We don't have to use everything”. In: taz.de . February 12, 2013, accessed May 2, 2020 .