Germany’s armed forces, the Bundeswehr, have barred small Chinese-made drones, including DJI models, from barracks and training grounds with immediate effect, according to DroneXL (Haye Kesteloo, 11 November 2026, 7:44 a.m. ET), which cites Der Spiegel. DroneXL says Der Spiegel reported the decision on Tuesday 10 November after a Defense Ministry spokesperson confirmed it, and that the directives reached the whole force over the previous few weeks. According to DroneXL, every unit must stop flying the drones it owns, and they are to be replaced with German or European products. Lens could not read Der Spiegel, Reuters or a ministry statement: searches in English and German found no report of the order, only earlier CORRECTIV reporting. This account therefore rests on DroneXL’s summary.

What DroneXL reports about the order

DroneXL does not name who signed the order; its only official source is an unnamed Defense Ministry spokesperson. The ministry says there is no blanket ban on any country’s systems and that each decision rests on individual risk assessments covering military, IT and data security. A ministry spokesperson told Reuters, as DroneXL quotes it, that Chinese-made models will no longer be used, and framed the move as a way to strengthen the Bundeswehr’s self-sufficiency. DroneXL reports that because no central record tracked purchases, the ministry chose a force-wide ban, and that the ministry will not give a count, citing military security. It says insiders estimate that several thousand Chinese drones were bought nationwide, including DJI Matrice 30T models. According to Der Spiegel, as DroneXL relays it, DJI drones were never permitted for reconnaissance or tactical roles and units used them in introductory courses for future pilots and as targets for air-defense systems. Der Spiegel also reports that soldiers driving BYD, Geely or NIO cars must leave them outside the gate; the ministry says access to sensitive sites can be restricted where a vehicle’s sensors pose a risk.

Earlier orders and purchases

DroneXL, citing CORRECTIV reporting of August 2026, says that in November 2023 Order 159, signed by Lt. Gen. Martin Schelleis, then head of the Joint Support Service, barred drones from states with special security risks and named only China, and that in June 2024 the Bundeswehr’s drone task force, then led by Wolfgang Jordan, recommended eight DJI models, including the Matrice 30, for an approved list. The rules required them to operate offline and to have their data deleted after use. In November 2024 the Bundeswehr signed a framework contract with Droneparts GmbH for 500 DJI Matrice M30T thermal drones, which according to a contract CORRECTIV obtained included a “no-spy” clause stating the aircraft were protected against data leaks. A ministry spokesperson earlier confirmed to CORRECTIV that DJI devices were used in training and said that flying only on military property, offline and under strict rules ruled out a leak.

Data-security claims, unconfirmed

DroneXL says it is not known whether any sensitive data leaked. It reports that an insider who had complained about DJI use told Der Spiegel that the military counterintelligence service, MAD, found forensic traces of data diverted from Bundeswehr drones; the ministry did not directly answer. It also reports that, after an April 2025 crash, DJI rejected a Bundeswehr warranty claim as pilot error based on its analysis of onboard data, according to an insider, and that a penetration test reportedly found memory would need overwriting up to 1,000 times to clear it, which the ministry disputes. DJI says its drones pose no security risk, and DroneXL notes a May 2026 audit by OnDefend of the Air 3S and Matrice 4E that found no clear evidence of hidden backdoors.

What could not be confirmed

Lens could not confirm the order, its date, its signatory or its scope, including whether it covers all use or only barracks and training grounds. DroneXL’s headline says the Bundeswehr has banned DJI drones “again”, a reference to the 2023 order. The ministry’s numbers, the MAD finding and the penetration-test result come from unnamed insiders as relayed by DroneXL and are not confirmed by the ministry.

Sources and notes

Source: DroneXL (Haye Kesteloo, 11 November 2026), read through a summary; DroneXL says it uses automated tools for research, and its editorial commentary is left out here. Der Spiegel, Reuters and the Defense Ministry’s own statements were not read, and CORRECTIV’s reports are known to Lens only through DroneXL and search-result summaries. Lens’s searches in English and German for a November order found no other report.

Image: A DJI Matrice 30T enterprise drone in flight, 16 November 2024. Photo: ZLEA, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons; cropped. Stand-in image of the model named in the Bundeswehr’s 2024 framework contract; it is not a Bundeswehr drone or base and was photographed in the United States.