With Drones Over US Military Bases, Agencies Urge Congress to Pass Drone-Defense Legislation

A series of drone sightings over U.S. military bases 'has renewed concerns that the U.S. doesn't have clear government-wide policy for how to deal with unauthorized incursions that could potentially pose a national security threat,' reports CNN:

'We're one year past Langley drone incursions and almost two years past the PRC spy balloon. Why don't we have a single [point of contact] who is responsible for coordination across all organizations in the government to address this?' the recently retired head of US Northern Command and NORAD, Gen. Glen VanHerck, told CNN. 'Instead, everybody's pointing their fingers at each other saying it's not our responsibility....' Over a period of six days earlier this month, there were six instances of unmanned aerial systems, or drones, entering the airspace of the Marine Corps base Camp Pendleton in California, a spokesperson confirmed to CNN, adding that they posed 'no threat to installation operations and no impact to air and ground operations.' There have also been incidents in the last month at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio; Picatinny Arsenal, New Jersey; Naval Weapons Station Earle, New Jersey; and Vandenberg Space Force Base, California. A Chinese citizen, who is a lawful permanent resident of the US, was recently arrested in connection to the California incident.

The drone incidents are 'a problem that has been brewing for over a decade and we have basically failed to address it,' said retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Rob Spalding, who previously served as the chief China strategist for the Joint Chiefs of Staff and senior director for strategic planning on the National Security Council. It's unclear what specifically the drones could be doing — the intent could be anything from attempting to gather intelligence on the base or testing its defenses and response time, to gaining a better understanding of how the bases work, or they could simply be harmless hobbyists flying drones too close to restricted areas... Despite the incursions and the risk they could pose, officials say there is no coordinated policy to determine what agency leads the response to such activity, or how to determine where the drones originate.

CNN reported this week that government agencies have struggled to keep pace with the development of drones and drone technology, particularly by adversaries like China, though legislation is being discussed and the Pentagon just recently released its strategy for countering unmanned systems... The two heads of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Sens. Jack Reed and Roger Wicker, sounded the alarm in a Washington Post op-ed at the beginning of 2024 that the US 'lacks adequate drone detection capability' and that agencies 'lack clear lines of authority about which agency is responsible for stopping these incursions.'

Military installations have the authority to protect themselves and respond to threats, but a former senior military official said that if the drone enters the airspace and subsequently leaves, determining where the drone originated from and what it was doing can be difficult. Military law enforcement typically coordinates with civilian law enforcement off base in that instance, the former official said, but are often limited in what they can do given laws that restrict intelligence collection within US borders. But sources also said the lack of ability to do more also stems at times from a failure to prioritize defense against this kind of activity within the US. The topic is 'such a relatively new phenomenon that the law has not caught up and the agencies have not adapted quickly enough,' [said one Senate aide familiar with discussions on drone defense and policy].

'The need for Congressional action was made clear in a joint statement this week from the Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, Federal Bureau of Investigations and Federal Aviation Administration,' according to the article.

'The agencies said they 'urge Congress to enact counter-UAS legislation when it reconvenes that would extend and expand existing counter-drone authorities to identify and mitigate any threat that may emerge.''

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