The Pentagon has taken significant steps to address the security threat of unidentified drones flying over U.S. military bases but is still not adequately prepared to deal with what remains a growing problem, a U.S. House panel was told this week.
Lawmakers remain concerned that there are still unanswered questions about how drones were able to fly over Joint Base Langley-Eustis in Virginia in 2023 for 17 nights.
Virginia Rep. Suhas Subramanyam noted that the Pentagon has said there were about 350 drones that flew over nearly 100 U.S. military installations last year.
“That’s 350 different, potential national security breaches that we know of,” he said during an oversight hearing this week, noting that those incidents are also a threat to the lives of military personnel.
The chairman of the House Oversight and Accountability Subcommittee on Military and Foreign Affairs, South Carolina Rep. William Timmons, led the hearing on the issue. He pointed out that incursions are “not from hobbyists being blown off course.”
Timmons said they appear to be a “coordinated effort by our adversaries to collect valuable intelligence and surveillance of some of our most sensitive military equipment.”
Langley incursion showed vulnerability
Pentagon witnesses who testified before the panel acknowledged the military is still trying to improve its response to the problem.
“The mass drone incursions over Joint Base Langley-Eustis in December 2023 reminded us that the homeland is no longer a sanctuary,” said Rear Adm. Paul Spedero, vice director for operations with the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
“And should our adversary choose to employ drones for surveillance, or even attack, we would not be prepared to adequately defend our homeland and only marginally capable to defend our military,” he added.
Spedero said the incursion over the Virginia base, which is home to the F-22 Raptors, remains the largest to date.
As a result of media and public attention to the incident and others, he said the military is now better prepared to deal with incursions.
The U.S. Northern Command has developed a “road map” for installations to deal with the drone threat. Spedero also said there is now a standard operating procedure that military bases can follow when dealing with drones, or Unmanned Aircraft Systems as they are also referred to.
Drone problem keeps growing
Timmons asked Spedero whether military officials have seen an increase in drone incursions since the Pentagon first reported there had been 350 during a one-year period.
Spedero said he could provide that information in a classified setting: “But I can tell you, it has grown.”
He also acknowledged that there are gaps in technology that give those flying the drones an advantage.
“In general, the technology to field systems has far outpaced the technology to defeat those systems,” he said.
Another important issue is how military bases actually respond to drones. Mark Ditlevson, acting assistant secretary of defense for homeland defense and hemispheric affairs, said that is something the Pentagon is continuing to work on.
He said the Department of Defense is trying to streamline processes so base commanders will know what authority they have to respond to drone threats.
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