Dr Peter Skiczuk is Director of Defence at Frequentis

Unidentified flying objects over airports, military and industrial sites, or drones in airspace: the situation in lower airspace has changed dramatically in recent years. For airspace management, this is no longer a special case, but a stress test. Only coordinated processes and integrated platforms enable rapid protection of critical infrastructure, even across national borders.

For several years now, the use of drones in lower airspace in the civil, military and BOS sectors has been on the rise – and the trend is upwards. The areas of application range from logistics drones and private aircraft or rescue helicopters to spy drones. According to the BKA, there were more than 1,000 drone sightings over airports, industrial facilities and critical infrastructure in Germany in 2025. These frequently lead to airspace closures and, in some cases, have enormous economic repercussions.

The key question is how to address this change. Precise and timely tracking plays a vital role here, as does the identification of both unknown and hostile objects. An equally significant challenge is the smooth coordination of the various stakeholders who control airspace, both nationally and internationally.

What makes airspace management complex

In most countries, there is not just one institution that monitors and controls airspace, but many: civil air traffic control, the police, the military, public authorities and operators of critical infrastructure. These must be coordinated so that decision-making processes regarding airspace activities can proceed efficiently and swiftly.

Airspace is also ‘open’: it has no clear boundaries like fences on the ground. Flying objects quickly cross organisational and national borders. This affects civil and military institutions with national and international responsibilities. Every unit and every country has established different laws and processes for this. These include clearance and classification regimes, but also data protection requirements for sensitive information.

The greatest challenge is therefore to coordinate and consolidate the various situation assessments and information levels in order to avoid wasting time in critical situations and to take swift action, for example when enemy drones intrude into European airspace.

Communication and integration as the key to the solution

The crucial point, therefore, is an integrated system that brings together all the information gathered, creates a shared situational picture for all stakeholders and enables coordinated decision-making processes. And this not only at national level, but also across borders and within the framework of legal and military requirements. In doing so, regulations on national data sovereignty must be observed. This is made possible by role- and situation-based authorisations, ensuring that only the necessary information flows.

The aim is not to replace existing national systems with a manufacturer-specific system, but to integrate the heterogeneous ATM and UTM systems into comprehensive communication architectures. These architectures are capable of correlating and normalising the data collected from various sources and in different data formats. They then ensure secure transfers to decision-making and operational structures, whilst taking into account prescribed national and international data clearance requirements.

Example: Drones over industrial facilities or in military airspace

If drones suddenly appear over a large industrial facility that forms part of critical infrastructure, the first challenge is to identify and classify the flying objects. Various stakeholders may be involved, as there may also be a civilian airport, a police control centre with helicopters and a military airbase in the vicinity. Depending on their equipment, the various air traffic control authorities use different sensor systems to identify the flying objects and quickly assess the situation. The networking of these sensors thus forms the basis for sensor fusion, from which an accurate situational picture is generated in real time.

Whether and how action should be taken against the drones must then be coordinated in a concerted manner. In crisis situations, this only works if clear lines of responsibility are established in advance, the necessary handover of responsibilities takes place, and a rapid response – for example via a C-UAV – is carried out promptly. At the same time, the airspace management system ensures that all parties involved are kept informed, documents the incident, the situation assessments and decisions, and thus offers opportunities for optimisation for future events.

The German Armed Forces, for example, use a Frequentis system for the management of military airspace, which generates a continuous air situation picture based on Remote ID data. This supports both dynamic airspace management and the defence against non-cooperative drones and can be integrated into the Air Force’s overall air situation picture if required. The underlying UTM system addresses the growing complexity of airspace use by manned and unmanned systems, as well as additional influencing factors such as artillery trajectories, thereby enabling the efficient and safe management of the limited resource that is airspace. Its range of functions includes, amongst other things, flight authorisation, flight monitoring, weather services, geo-awareness and alert mechanisms.

Conclusion: Airspace Management as a Coordination Platform

The increasing air traffic in lower airspace, particularly due to UAVs and flying objects of unknown origin, necessitates an airspace management platform that integrates existing systems of civil and military actors at national and international level and ensures smooth data exchange and rapid communication. To this end, its architecture and processes must be geared towards maximum interoperability and it must also be capable of handling proprietary data formats.

Once implemented, it acts as a digital backbone, strengthening organisational and cross-border cooperation and enabling the air traffic institutions involved to quickly establish a situational picture and respond promptly, even in critical situations.

About the author: Peter Skiczuk is Vice President Defence at Frequentis. In this role, he is responsible for the strategic development and operational management of the defence business. He has many years of experience in leading complex business units and in the sustainable development of safety-critical markets.