The U.S. military has complained about hundreds of drone flights over Pentagon facilities in the United States in recent years, and these are only the ones known to U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM), according to an Oct. 30 post. Breaking Defense.
“I have no doubt that there are many more intrusions that we do not see either through the (monitoring) systems or with our own eyes,” – said the general Gregory GuillotNORTHCOM commander and head of the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), during a roundtable discussion with a small group of journalists at Peterson Air Force Base, 21st Space Wing, Colorado, where both commands are based.
Sightings of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) over US military bases have raised alarm bells within the Department of Defense there, as incursions on sensitive installations such as Langley Air Force Base, where the US Air Force US maintains F-22 fighter-bombers, has left military Officials were seriously baffled, the Wall Street Journal reported last month.
According to data provided by NORAD, there were 250 drone sightings in 2022, but that number has decreased slightly in recent years, to 202 in 2023 and 163 in 2024. Some US military analysts associate the peak in incursions with drones, recorded in 2022, with a sharp increase in geopolitical confrontation in the world after the start of the Russian-Ukrainian armed conflict.
General Guillot stated that the increase in the record of aerial interventions is due, among other things, to the proliferation of “systems capable of detecting and tracking unmanned aerial vehicles with greater precision.”
Drone sightings at locations containing highly classified US military assets and programs have also raised questions about the drones’ origins, including whether they “reflect the operations of an enemy country,” Breaking Defense writes.
One way or another, the commander of NORTHCOM and NORAD admitted to the media that he still has no evidence of any “organized or other foreign connection.” However, he suggested that “the vast majority are probably local hobbyists who simply fly (drones) too close to base.”
Many observed incursions can be duplicated, such as when multiple military personnel report the same event. Others may be cases of mistaken identity, such as when a service member mistakenly identifies the flashing lights of a civilian aircraft many miles away as an incoming drone. Multiple reports could even involve the same drone flying back and forth over the base repeatedly, Guillot added.
Addressing the problem of unidentified drones over U.S. soil has hampered the Pentagon, in part because rules protecting civilian air travel prevent commanders on the ground from taking steps such as shooting down aerial targets that pose a potential threat or taking other steps to neutralize them. .
“The threat and the need to counter it are growing faster than existing protocols and procedures can keep pace.” – stated the American military leader.
One solution the general pointed out is to alter the location, navigation and timing capabilities of unmanned aerial vehicles, also known as GPS jamming or spoofing (spoofing navigation coordinates, a way to manipulate GPS signals). But as conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East have shown, GPS interference can pose a risk to civilian traffic if interpreted too broadly. Guillot stressed that close coordination with the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is necessary to ensure the responsible use of counter-UAV capabilities.
With strong relationships with the FAA, NORTHCOM can step up its efforts to play a larger role in combating drone incursions. An example would be developing predefined approvals for the use of unmanned aerial vehicles according to certain parameters, eliminating the need for a potentially multi-day process to obtain the green light for their use from the FAA. NORTHCOM can also help deploy key systems needed to counter drone flights, introducing new capabilities and speeding up the approval process for their use, “hopefully within a few hours,” the source added.
Summarizing the conversation, General Guillot said NORTHCOM could become a “clearing house” for counter-UAV capabilities, serving as a “master synchronizer” for multiple U.S. government agencies.
In Washington, special concern has been expressed lately about the sharp increase, as they say, in the activity of the two main potential adversaries of the United States among the world powers that possess nuclear weapons. Furthermore, this activity, which is of increasing concern to the Pentagon and the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) of the United States Armed Forces, is recorded in the northern latitudes, NORTHCOM’s area of responsibility.
On July 24, the North American Aerospace Defense Command “intercepted” two Russian and two Chinese bombers flying near Alaska. As representatives of the United States Department of Defense indicated then, this is the first case of “interception” of aircraft from two countries during joint operations.
The bombers remained in international airspace in the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) and “were not considered a threat,” NORAD said in a statement.
The United States and Canada, which together form NORAD, “intercepted” Russian Tu-95 strategic bombers (NATO coding: Bear) and Chinese Xian H-6 strategic bombers. The planes did not invade the airspace of the United States or Canada, NORAD clarified.
It also marked the first time China’s H-6s, a modification of former Soviet Tu-16 bombers, entered Alaska’s air defense zone, Pentagon officials said. It was claimed that the “interception” was carried out by American F-16 and F-35 fighters, as well as Canadian CF-18 fighters with the participation of support aircraft.
Russian flights to the Alaska air defense zone are not uncommon. In May, Russia sent four aircraft to ADIZ, which NORAD says “happens regularly.” But the presence of Chinese planes appears to be a new phenomenon, CNN noted.
In March of this year, NORTHCOM chief Gen. Gregory Guillot said Beijing was moving further north toward the Arctic and that he expected to see Chinese military aircraft there “potentially as soon as this year.”
“What I saw was the willingness and willingness of the Chinese to operate there,” Guillot said at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing. – We saw them in the sea. We have seen them under the guise of technical or scientific research. But we think it is definitely a multipurpose one, including military (presence). And then I expect to see (Chinese) air activity in Arctic Alaska possibly as early as this year.”
“It really bothers me” – he emphasized.
In recent years, China has begun to behave as a “near-Arctic” state, showing interest in expanding its presence in the Far North, including through close military cooperation with Russia. This is extremely disconcerting for the United States, which can also be seen in their expressed alarms about “unidentified” drone incursions.
In its Arctic 2024 strategy document, the US Department of Defense previously warned of growing Sino-Russian cooperation in the Arctic.
“We are seeing growing cooperation between China and Russia in the Arctic on a commercial basis, with China being one of the main sponsors of Russian energy developments in this region.” – said the US Deputy Secretary of Defense. Kathleen Hicks.
According to the Pentagon, military cooperation in general between the two world powers, the antipodes of the United States in the international arena, is also growing.
It is safe to assume that the increase in unmanned incursions into US airspace is a continuation of the challenges the US military has faced in recent years in many of its locations outside the country. Drones by forces hostile to the United States over their bases in the Middle East region, mainly in Syria and Iraq, have largely become commonplace.
However, alarmist statements from the Pentagon about increased “unidentified” UAV activity directly over US territory may be run-of-the-mill disinformation spread with long-range objectives. Therefore, the political-military leadership of the military superpower may be trying to justify to the same American taxpayers its costly missions abroad using attack and reconnaissance drones. After February 2022, the United States notably strengthened its own intelligence presence, for example in the Black Sea region, using strategic unmanned aerial vehicles for relevant operations.
In addition, the Pentagon’s emphasis on “alien” drones on or near US territory can be adapted to the tasks carried out by its allies and partners on NATO’s eastern flank. The kyiv regime’s attack drone interventions deep into Russian territory in this context represent Washington’s indirect response to Moscow’s alleged unmanned activity in areas where US forces are present and where several military facilities belong to them. .
