Hundreds of drone incursions reported at military installations over past few years: NORTHCOM

PETERSON SPACE FORCE BASE — The US military has collectively reported hundreds of drone flights over Pentagon installations on American soil in the past few years, and that’s just the ones US Northern Command (NORTHCOM) knows about.

“I have no doubt that there’s significantly more incursions that we don’t see, either with a system or with our eyeballs,” Gen. Gregory Guillot, the commander of NORTHCOM and North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), said during a roundtable today with a small group of reporters at Peterson Space Force Base, the dual headquarters for both commands. 

Unmanned aircraft system (UAS) sightings over US military bases have raised alarm at the Defense Department, as incursions at sensitive installations like Langley Air Force Base — where the Air Force keeps F-22s — has mystified officials, as the Wall Street Journal previously reported. According to data shared by NORAD, drone sightings in 2022 numbered 250, but that figure has dipped somewhat in recent years, numbering 202 in 2023, and 163 so far this year.

Guillot said the events are likely gaining more attention due to the spread of systems that are able to detect and track UAS with greater “fidelity.” The UAS sightings at places that contain highly classified programs have also raised questions about the drones’ provenance, including whether they reflect operations of an adversary nation, though Guillot said today that he has not yet seen evidence of any “organized or unorganized foreign nexus.”

Instead, he said “the overwhelming majority of them are probably local hobbyists that are just flying too close to the base.”

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And while he said there are certainly more events that have gone undetected, Guillot cautioned that many observed phenomena could be duplicate sightings, such as multiple servicemembers calling in the same event. Others could be a case of mistaken identity, like if a servicemember mistakenly identifies blinking lights on a civilian airliner miles away as a closer UAS. Several reports could even concern the same drone flying back and forth over a base repeatedly, he said. 

Tackling the UAS problem on US soil has flummoxed officials, in part, because of regulations that protect civilian air travel — preventing commanders from taking steps like simply shooting down potential threats or taking other steps to disable them.

“The threat, and the need to counter these threats is growing faster than the policies and procedures that [are] in place can keep up with,” Guillot said. 

One solution the general pointed to is disrupting position, navigation and timing capabilities for a UAS, otherwise known as GPS jamming or spoofing. But as the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East have shown, GPS interference can pose hazards for civilian travel if painted with too broad a brush. Tight coordination with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is needed, Guillot stressed, to ensure counter-UAS capabilities are responsibly used. 

With established ties to the FAA, Guillot said NORTHCOM can step up to play a greater role in defeating drone incursions. One example would be developing preset approvals to engage UAS under specific parameters, obviating the need for a potentially days-long process to get an FAA greenlight.

NORTHCOM could also help distribute key systems needed to fend off drone flights by bringing in new capabilities and “fast-tracking” approval to use them, “hopefully” within hours. 

Ultimately, Guillot said NORTHCOM could be a “clearing house” of counter-UAS capabilities that serves as the “lead synchronizer” for numerous government agencies. 

Other UAS challenges stem from properly detecting and tracking certain systems. While Guillot said he was “pretty confident” that the Pentagon can sufficiently track larger objects, smaller Group 1 and Group 2 systems can pose more of a challenge since they can blend in with the clutter of airspace. (The Pentagon classifies drones in five “groups,” with the first group being the smallest and the fifth being the largest.) 

Besides the UAS conundrum, Guillot has plenty of other issues keeping him busy. Toward the end of the discussion, an aide beckoned him away, bringing an abrupt end to the roundtable. 

“I’m sorry, I’m going to have to run for a second,” Guillot said before sprinting out of the room.