The Bundeswehr has, for the first time, raised the internal Russian sabotage threat to Charlie, the second of four levels. HotNews, via Reuters, writes that WDR and the Süddeutsche Zeitung saw the assessment. A Defence Ministry spokesman confirmed it: “we are noting that we face a significant sabotage threat overall for the Bundeswehr.” It is an alert raised. It is not an attack under way, and it is not a verdict of attribution.

The trigger, the two newsrooms reported, was a crashed drone found in mid-September near Wunstorf air base in Lower Saxony, carrying a tin of high explosive. The internal paper says Russia had crossed “a previously anticipated red line of harmful intent involving kinetic and/or lethal effects,” by using drones as weapons. Moscow denies any part in sabotage in Europe.

Tagesschau, on the WDR investigation, adds a point HotNews does not lead with: BKA analyses indicate the Wunstorf drone may have lain there for about two years. Investigators link it to military aircraft, unlike Leipzig/Halle in August, where the targets were described as civilian cargo planes. The mid-September find is not a Wednesday raid.

On the internal scale, Charlie is set when there is clear information of an imminent terrorist or sabotage attack. That does not mean such an attack is happening now. The spokesman said preventive measures are tailored to each base: patrols, infrared cameras, fence surveillance. The services, according to the paper, expect a near-term worsening. That is a forecast, not a timetable of strikes.

The document also notes suspected reconnaissance: drones over the Arrow 3 site in Saxony-Anhalt and a camouflaged camera at a station in Minden. Chancellor Friedrich Merz spoke on Wednesday of disinformation and hybrid attacks. Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt, a week earlier, of a “shadow war.” Neither phrase stands in for the internal Charlie assessment.

Source consulted: The German army has raised the alert level on Russian sabotage. Internal document on a crossed “red line” — HotNews.

Image: Luftwaffe Airbus A400M 54+25 landing at Wunstorf air base, 15 June 2023, MarcelX42, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The airfield, not the drone found in September.

Sources consulted: Bundeswehr warns of Russian attacks — tagesschau.de / WDR.