New reports of more than a dozen unidentified drones allowed to fly over Langley Air Force Base renew calls for changes to a threat that experts say will become more prevalent.
Over two weeks in December 2023, mysterious drones entered restricted airspace over key national security facilities and facilities housing F-22 Raptor stealth fighter jets.
Experts say the incident is likely one of many that U.S. authorities are unprepared to respond to in an evolving threat environment.
Lacking standard procedures for such intrusions, Langley authorities didn't know what to do other than hover a 20-foot-long drone near the sensitive facility.
The Pentagon has said little about the incident other than confirming that it occurred after the incident. Wall Street Journal report this month. It's unclear where the drone came from or what it was doing.
An F-22 fighter jet takes off from Langley Air Force Base in Hampton, Virginia. (US Norcom)
“I don't think they know,” one Congressional official familiar with defense operations told Fox News Digital.
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As defense-minded lawmakers sought more answers, Langley officials referred them to the FBI, which referred them to Northern Command, which in turn referred them to local law enforcement, officials said.
“They should be able to easily find out exactly what they are,” said Brett Velicovich, an advisor to drone technology company Redcat Holdings and a Fox News contributor.
“There are all kinds of radar systems out there. Each drone has its own fingerprint.”
“If they say we don't know what it is, and we're taking them at their word that they don't know what it is, then that means the administration really has their pants down. It speaks to a larger problem: they just got caught. They failed.”
If drones are a foreign adversary testing the limits of U.S. defenses, Veljkovic said, the message is that it's easy to penetrate restricted airspace.
U.S. capabilities offer a variety of ways to take down drones, including shooting them, zapping them with thermal lasers, and jamming their frequencies.
Whether Congress needs to change the law is a matter of debate, but one thing is clear: intrusions like Langley create confusion over legal authority.
President Biden will speak at Joint Base Langley-Eustis in Hampton, Virginia, the site of two weeks of intrusion by unidentified drones. (AP)
Rules of engagement give military personnel the freedom to engage the drones if they enter the vicinity of overseas bases.
However, US law does not allow the military to shoot down drones near bases unless they pose an immediate threat. Langley has authority to protect coastal bases, the Coast Guard has authority to protect maritime areas, and the Federal Aviation Administration has authority over the United States' airspace, the most heavily trafficked by commercial airliners in the world.
“After 9/11, we invested all of this money into homeland security to deal with exactly what we're seeing today,” said James Carafano, a defense expert at the Heritage Foundation. . “We built this whole infrastructure to deal with it. And where is it today? We've been very lazy about this.”
“Someday there's going to be a terrorist attack here. It's going to happen.”
Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, argued that the Pentagon needs to use the authority it has been given.
“Drone incursions into Department of Defense facilities are concerning. The Department of Defense is focused on leveraging existing authority granted by Congress to deploy true and effective capabilities across critical facilities. “I will continue to monitor the Department of Defense's response to these drone intrusions.” In a statement.
Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kansas) has promised to introduce legislation that would give the Pentagon more authority to shoot down drones.
“Currently, military leaders do not have the authority to engage until there is an imminent threat to our men and women in uniform. We are working on a bill that will provide a response before it is too late.”
Mississippi Sen. Roger Wicker, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, called on Congress to pass legislation establishing counter-drone procedures.
“Our adversaries like China, Russia, and Iran are improving their drone capabilities every month. Our defense capabilities are not keeping up,” he said.
“Congress must immediately develop and implement a comprehensive set of plans to strengthen anti-drone protocols and technology development. There is no time to waste. The lives of military personnel and all Americans are at risk. Exposed.”
U.S. Air Force XQ-67A unmanned aircraft. (AFRL)
This month, Chinese national Fengyun Shi was sentenced to six months in prison for filming drone footage over the Huntington Ingalls Industries shipyard in Newport News, Virginia, 16 miles from Langley Air Force Base. Ta.
In October 2023, two months before the Langley incident, five drones flew over the Department of Energy's Nevada National Security Facility used for nuclear weapons testing. U.S. authorities also did not know who was behind the drone.
A Chinese surveillance balloon flew over the United States for a week last year before the Air Force shot it down off the coast.
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At the U.S. Air Force Plant 42 in California, where highly classified aerospace development takes place, there were frequent intrusions by unidentified drones in 2024, leading to flight restrictions around the facility.
“There are a lot of restrictions on what the Department of Defense can do on U.S. soil, which makes it very difficult,” said Stacey Pettyjohn, defense program director at the Center for a New American Security.
Even jamming the GPS system and causing the drone to freeze and fall from the sky is a risk of collateral damage. May disrupt nearby air traffic.
“Unlike when you're in Iraq or something like that and there are drones flying over you, you're in the middle of the desert and you can fire missiles and intercept them without too much worry,” he continued. “There will be more of this in the future, and I think the United States is woefully underprepared for it.”
Overseas, experts have warned that the U.S. military is not equipped to deal with the growing threat of drone warfare.
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In January, a drone attack in Jordan killed three U.S. service members.
“Response time is [counter-drone measures] “It's very small, there aren't many systems in the United States that are optimized for this, and it's very expensive,” Pettyjohn said. It will be run by the government,” he said. Now they are all remotely controlled. Eventually they will become autonomous and truly herd. ”
