The Bundeswehr Will Form Its First Drone Regiment in 2027 in the 10th Armoured Division — 600 Soldiers, Ranges to 500 km

The announcement closed the Experimentalserie Land, the army's field trials of drone and counter-drone tactics. The Bundeswehr's own account gives the structure, a regiment under the divisional troops of the 10th Armoured Division with its own electronic-warfare company, and the timing, 2027; the numbers come from the reporting around it, about 300 soldiers for an initial capability and 600 when complete, with the garrison still to be decided. In parallel, unmanned capabilities are to be built into the infantry, reconnaissance and armoured branches from the turn of the year.

The munitions are already bought. In February the Bundestag's budget committee approved two seven-year frameworks and first call-offs of about EUR 270 million each, some 4,300 Helsing HX-2 and 2,200 STARK Virtus; in April Rheinmetall received a first call-off of about EUR 300 million for its FV-014. Deliveries of all three begin in 2027. Helsing and Rheinmetall give their rounds about 100 kilometres; STARK gives Virtus 130.

The 500 kilometres is a requirement, not an inventory: nothing the army has ordered reaches beyond 130, so the outer band of the regiment's remit is a procurement still to be made. The placement is the more settled fact. The 10th Armoured Division is the one carrying the brigade in Lithuania, which is also where the first Virtus rounds are going, so the regiment and the munitions it is meant to employ are converging on the same division. Großwald's next marker is a budget-committee submission for a system in the 130-to-500-kilometre band. Signal No. 158 reported the announcement the same day; the February approvals are in Großwald's dispatch of 25 February.