Russian drones ‘spying’ on Ukrainian Leopard tank training in Germany

Germany ruling coalition increasingly anxious for armed forces to tackle scourge of UAVs

Russia is using drones to spy on Ukrainian troops undergoing training on Leopard battle tanks in Germany, officials said.
Suspected Russian drones have been spotted overhead at military training locations for more than a year, but German armed forces are yet to intercept an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) or arrest its pilot.
Lawmakers in Berlin have labelled an inability to tackle the “massive problem with drones” as “unacceptable”.
The defence policy spokesman of the Free Democratic Party, a member of Germany’s ruling coalition, said drones had regularly been spotted over the Klietz military training area, where the Bundeswehr trains Ukrainians on Leopard 1.
“At other bases, several drones sometimes enter the airspace at the same time. This is clearly organised and points to Russia,” Marcus Faber said.
At least 10,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been trained in Germany since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion, according to Berlin’s estimates.
New recruits are given basic infantry training in the country, while more experienced troops are drilled on advanced equipment like US Patriot air defence systems and Leopard tanks
Gen Carsten Breuer, then a commander of Germany’s homeland defence, was first alerted to suspicious drone activity in October 2022. 
He immediately ordered military police officers to be trained on HP 47 jammers in a bid to down unidentified UAVs.
But he was soon promoted to chief of defence and his anti-drone programme was largely forgotten about.
That was until November last year, when a drone task force was formed under the command of Brig Gen Wolfgang Jordan.
The lack of progress in tackling the scourge of UAVs has increased pressure on defence minister Boris Pistorius to deliver results, with each party in Germany’s ruling coalition reported to be increasingly anxious for a breakthrough.
Andreas Schwarz, defence spokesman for Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats, said it was “unacceptable for the chief of defence to realise that there is a massive problem with drones, but then nothing happens for a year”.
Sebastian Schäfer of the Greens added: “There is no drone strategy. We urgently need one.”
Meanwhile, it has emerged that the majority of the 18 Leopard 2 main battle tanks donated by Germany to Ukraine were being repaired abroad after mechanical failures.
“Unfortunately, it can be noted that only a very small number of the delivered battle tanks can be used by Ukraine,” Mr Schäfer said.
He made his remarks after a visit to a Lithuanian factory used to repair Ukraine’s fleet of Leopard 2 tanks.
Most of the vehicles are taken to the maintenance facility with signs of wear and tear rather than damage sustained during combat.
But the refurbishments were said to be delayed because of a lack of spare parts and expertise inside Ukraine to carry out the running repairs near the battlefield.
Manufacturers Rheinmetall and KMW have been urged to do more to facilitate faster repairs of the tanks donated to Ukraine.
They called for the German tank producers to “quickly improve the spare parts situation”, while warning: “There is also apparently a problem in the fact that there are some repair attempts by the Ukrainian army, which then lead to further damage to the battle tanks.”
The defence spokesmen urged arms firms to consider deploying trained mechanics to Ukraine to fix the tanks themselves.