Germany’s Bundeswehr will establish its first dedicated drone regiment in 2027, with Defence Minister Boris Pistorius unveiling the plan at the Bergen training area in Lower Saxony. The new unit will bring together unmanned air and land systems, with a target strength of up to 600 personnel and a focus on faster deployment of drone, counter-drone and electronic warfare capabilities.
The regiment is intended to centralise capabilities that are now spread across different units and to accelerate the military’s adaptation to lessons from the war in Ukraine. It is expected to include an electromagnetic warfare company and to cover systems with ranges from close-in use to about 500 kilometres. Reporting also indicates that loitering munitions will form part of the unit’s equipment once they are introduced more widely into service.
The new formation is expected to be tied to the German Army’s 10th Panzer Division, although the exact stationing location has not yet been decided. Pistorius framed the move as part of a broader push to expand the Bundeswehr’s uncrewed systems capability in a more structured way, rather than leaving drone assets dispersed across existing formations.