Bavaria’s prisons arm themselves against drones. State Minister of Justice Georg Eisenreich (CSU) gave the go-ahead for a pilot project on drone defense in Munich’s Stadelheim correctional facility on Wednesday. Eight correctional facilities (JVA) in the Free State are therefore testing a system for shooting down the small, unwanted flying objects.

Since 2015 drones were sighted on the premises or in the immediate vicinity of Bavarian prisons 57, the last of them the day before in Stadelheim, said Eisenreich. There were actually two attempts to smuggle something into a Bavarian prison with the drones: once a cell phone, once drugs. “So far there has not been a case of anything being successfully smuggled in,” emphasizes the minister.

With net guns against drones With that it stays that way, Bavaria has bought 15 net pistols, which are now available in Amberg, Kaisheim, Landshut am Lech, Nuremberg, Regensburg, Straubing and Würzburg in addition to the Munich prison of a pilot project are to be tested. According to the ministry, Bavaria is the first German federal state to systematically shoot down drones over prisons. Cost: around 5000 euros per equipment, so a total of 75. 000 euros pure material costs .

In addition, there is training for the employees who are supposed to fetch drones from the sky with the net pistols, which are called “dropsters”. With the help of a gas cartridge, a 2.4 meter by 2.4 meter large net is shot into the air, which is supposed to catch the drone and cause it to crash. The system was developed by a Swiss company and has been in use there for years, as Christian Gauer, partner of Droptec says. In addition to the interception nets, translucent grids should prevent Geg