The challenge of stopping drone swarms

The situation of stopping drone swarms

The situation of stopping drone swarms 06:15

This week connected 60 Minutes, analogous Bill Whitaker reports on drone incursions that person pierced the skies supra important subject and infrastructure sites astir the United States implicit the past six years. No 1 seems to cognize wherever the craft are coming from oregon who is operating them, including 3 four-star generals, a elder subordinate of Congress, and a Biden White House elder medication authoritative that 60 Minutes spoke with. 

"We should beryllium acrophobic that we don't cognize what these are," said Gen. Glen VanHerck, the erstwhile main of NORAD and NORTHCOM, the agencies that support U.S. airspace. "And the question that needs to beryllium asked is 'Why don't we cognize what these are?' And I deliberation you'll spot that determination are gaps successful capability, determination are gaps successful policy, and determination are gaps successful instrumentality that request to beryllium addressed."

One of the astir important caller drone incursions happened successful December 2023, erstwhile dozens of what the subject calls unmanned aerial systems, oregon UAS, invaded the skies supra Langley Air Force Base successful Virginia implicit 17 nights. The incursions were truthful persistent, the Air Force moved immoderate of the F-22s stationed astatine Langley to a adjacent aerial basal to support them from being damaged.

The nightly incursions astatine Langley were conscionable 1 of galore caller brazen drone swarms implicit subject sites. In 2019, dozens of drones shadowed naval warships grooming disconnected the California seashore for weeks. Since then, the defence quality website The War Zone has documented dozens of akin intrusions astatine delicate subject and civilian installations, including implicit the Palo Verde atomic works successful Arizona and implicit the U.S. Air Force's secretive Plant 42 successful confederate California, wherever defence contractors are gathering the adjacent procreation of stealth bombers.

The Army besides confirmed 11 drone sightings precocious past twelvemonth implicit the Picatinny Arsenal successful New Jersey, wherever they are designing and gathering precocious weaponry. That preceded galore drone sightings implicit New Jersey implicit the pursuing weeks.

With truthful galore incursions implicit delicate subject areas, wherefore has it been truthful hard to halt these drones?

The answer, successful part, lies successful the capableness of modern drones. Today's drones are ubiquitous, successful the hands of American adversaries and citizens alike. Sophisticated drones tin beryllium bought connected the net for a fewer 1000 dollars, and immoderate tin alert oregon hover for up to 10 hours, carrying a 30-pound payload.

They besides tin beryllium modified to alert astatine highly precocious oregon debased altitudes that are not trackable by the modular surveillance radars utilized by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) oregon NORAD.

"If you can't observe them, and way them, and place if they're perchance a civilian airplane, past it's truly challenging," VanHerck told Whitaker.

Shooting drones down

Even if the drones are determined not to beryllium an craft carrying civilians, VanHerck said, the occupation with stopping drones implicit mainland America is not arsenic casual arsenic simply knocking them retired of the sky, arsenic the U.S. subject mightiness bash connected a battlefield abroad.

"People calling for 'shooting them down' implicit precise populated areas request to recognize that a fighter, oregon a land-based missile, oregon a rocket disconnected of a ship, is going to accelerate to 2 to 4 times the velocity of dependable and person ample exploding titanium rods that travel retired of the warhead astatine thousands of feet per second," VanHerck explained. "So that's not safe, either."

A information interest would besides effect from the debris tract scattering successful a civilian neighborhood, with pieces of a rocket and drone that some perchance measurement respective 100 pounds. 

A 2nd contented is 1 of jurisdiction. Which enactment would oversee downing the drones? Depending connected wherever an incursion occurred, galore entities would person a stake, including section instrumentality enforcement, the FBI, the FAA, and the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security.

"I judge we'd beryllium successful a amended presumption if we had 1 enactment that was resourced, that was empowered, that was tasked with moving this occupation for the nation," said retired Air Force General Mark Kelly, who was the highest-ranking authoritative astatine Langley Air Force Base to witnesser the drone incursion determination successful December 2023.

Jamming drone frequencies

The subject could jam the frequence the drones usage to pass — but that comes with complications, arsenic well.

Most commercialized drones run connected the 2.4 GHz oregon 5.8 GHz vigor frequencies, which are the bands typically utilized for Wi-Fi, wireless LAN applications and networks, and video systems. Jamming those frequencies knocks each of those services retired successful the surrounding area, Kelly explained.

Similarly, the subject could contradict a PNT service, oregon precision navigation and timing, which is what astir radical deliberation of arsenic GPS. According to Kelly, rendering PNT unusable to halt drones besides takes navigation quality distant from commercialized pilots and civilians. 

VanHerck agrees that blocking drone connection is complicated. "If you jam those frequencies, and they reside successful a spectrum that whitethorn beryllium for TV, oregon proscription specified arsenic airplanes, past you're going to person interference with those," helium said. "And that's the interest astir utilizing the electromagnetic spectrum."

VanHerck noted that it is imaginable for the subject to contented a alleged "Notice to Airmen," which could notify commercialized airlines not to alert successful a peculiar country portion the subject jammed frequencies. He revealed for the archetypal clip that during the incursion astatine Langley, determination was an effort to jam frequencies that was approved and coordinated by the FAA, which utilized NASA and Coast Guard assets. But that effort came up short.

"I'm not alert of immoderate occurrence that they had," VanHerck said.

Fly-away kits to halt aboriginal incursions

To combat drone incursions, the subject is present moving connected fly-away kits, which are prepackaged bundles of exertion that tin beryllium deployed to antithetic subject installations erstwhile determination is simply a persistent incursion of drones. The kits volition see systems that would let the subject to spot these low-flying craft that today's radar misses. 

"We would person respective pre-positioned astatine assorted parts of the country, wherever we could rapidly respond not lone with the equipment, but with the authorization to run that instrumentality to decision that incursion," said Gen. Gregory Guillot, the existent commandant of NORAD and NORTHCOM.

Guillot said flyaway kits volition yet see instrumentality that volition beryllium capable to bring drones down and estimated they volition beryllium acceptable to beryllium distributed wrong a year. That means, were an incursion similar the 1 astatine Langley Air Force Base to hap again successful 2026, the subject would person immoderate quality to respond.

"That's my goal," Guillot said. "And we're good connected our way, partnering with manufacture to get there."

Videos of drones courtesy of Jonathan Butner and Paul Gerke.

The video supra was primitively published connected March 16, 2025. It was produced by Brit McCandless Farmer and edited by Scott Rosann. 

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