Drone Flights Over U.S. Military Bases May be Spying by Foreign Nations

What Happened?

General Gregory Guillot, commanding officer of U.S. Northern Command, told Congress this week that a spate of recent drone flights over U.S. military installation may have been done for surveillance purposes. 

In his testimony to Congress this week, General Guillot indicated he has reason to believe foreign nations were behind at least some of the recent drone flights over several military installations across the United States. 

“The primary threat I see for them in the way they’ve been operating is detection and perhaps surveillance of sensitive capabilities on our installations,” General Guillot said to Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) budget request hearing. 

He also pointed out that “There were 350 detections reported last year on military installations, and that was 350 over a total of 100 different installations of all types and levels of security.” 

Why it Matters

Drones are cheap, disposable, and can provide military organizations with some of the same capabilities as larger aircraft. 

Though smaller drones can’t carry as much equipment as full-sized aircraft, they can still carry enough video and audio recording devices to enable the operator to gather information on the target. 

Because they are much harder to detect, drones provide an ideal platform for conducting intelligence gathering and surveillance operations.

Why hasn’t the military been able to detect and counter drone intrusions over bases? 

The small size and relatively slow speed of most commercial drones makes them difficult to detect with radar. On most radar scopes they either won’t show up at all or look like ground clutter. 

In addition, drones can be hard to spot visually due to their small physical size. For countermeasures to work effectively, drones must first be detected which is difficult in many cases.

To respond to this new and evolving threat, U.S. Northern Command has been given the lead in organizing and synchronizing the response to drone incursions at military bases within the continental United States.

An organized effort is important because it can combine the resources of several different agencies. As General Guillot said “If the base and the service aren’t able to handle an incursion, we can bring in help from across the interagency and DOD to support them.” 

Drone warfare has evolved rapidly in the last several years, mainly due to the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza. These have served as combat laboratories for innovating new ways to use unmanned aerial vehicles.

How it Affects You

Drones present a growing threat to both military installations and civilians.

Any malicious actor looking for a method of attack or spying that is capable but still hard to detect has an ideal tool in modern drones. 

New counter drone technologies are also being developed and employed, but it will take time for these new security measures to be funded and implemented on a large scale.