Federal officials are confronted with an imminent threat of foreigners Use of drones To investigate the military bases of the United States after two recent arrests and a series of mysterious raids suggest that the airspace of the country is poorly equipped to handle the rapidly evolving technology.
At the end of 2024, the Ministry of Justice announced charges against Yinpiao Zhou, 39, because he is reportedly flying over a drone Vandenberg Space Force Base in California And take photos of the facility. The Chinese-American citizen was held when he tried to board a China-bound flight and was charged with Violation of the National Defense Air and not registering an aircraft.
“Everyone who operates a drone about a limited space, such as a military basis, would be subject to persecution,” Ken Gray, a former FBI agent and military analyst, told Fox News Digital. “A foreign national operational (a drone) evokes a concern that that person is involved in a kind of espionage or intelligence meeting.”
American military training service -members to combat the growing drone threat
Federal officials are working on adjusting the agency’s answers after two aliens were arrested for flying drones about military locations. (Jens Büttner/Picture Alliance via Getty Images)
A sworn explanation revealed that Vandenberg’s drone detection systems flew over his base on November 30, 2024. When the basic authorities followed the origin of the drone to a nearby park and confronted Zhou and a second person, he tried to hide the drone in his jacket.
Two months later a Canadian tourist was arrested because he is reportedly a drone over one Defense installation in Florida.
Federal Public Prosecutors claim that Xiao Guang Pan, 71, used a drone to photograph sensitive defense installations on Cape Canaveral Space Force Base, According to the Doj. Pan is said to have taken photos of ammunition bunches, space -launch complexes, a submarine facility and the payload processing facility while flew with his drone on three separate days in January.
(Reuters/Joe Skipper/File)
“The answer to (drones) is not standard,” said Gray. “Depending on the place where the drone is noticed, their reaction can be everything, just to just note the trying to detect where the drone comes from, and the success of such reactions is really drastically varied.”
A series of high -profile mysterious incidents pushed drones into the national spotlight as public speculation grew.
In February, the highest general for all air defenses in North America went to the congress to make the alarm sound about nasty drones flying over the US, two months after a swarm of drones destroyed New Jersey’s Weeken weeks.
“The general’s comments offer further evidence that the Biden National Security Team was negative and the risks presented by the mysterious drones that were spotted everywhere in New Jersey, especially those who flew over sensitive locations in my own district, such as Naval Weapons Station Earle,” Rep. Chris Smith, RN.J., In a press release.
While the White House it says that the drones in the Garden were ‘authorized to be flown by the FAA for research and various other reasons’, the revelation has done little to calm the unrest of Americans.
Air Force Gen. Gregory M. Guillot, commander of Northcom and Norad, expressed his concern about the influx of mysterious drones flying through American airspace, especially about sensitive military locations. The four-star general mentioned widespread reports from drones that infiltrated classified locations throughout the country in his attempt to put the heat on the response of the legislators to the increased observations.
(J. David Ake/Getty Images/File)
“The primary threat I see for them in the way they work, is detection, and perhaps supervision, of sensitive possibilities on our installations,” Guillot said in a hearing for the Senate Guard Services Committee. “350 detections were reported last year Military installationsAnd that was 350 more than a total of 100 different installations of all types and levels of security. “
Last year, the Langey Air Force Base of Virginia was defenseless when drones invaded the sky at the top of 17 nights, according to a report obtained by The Wall Street Journal.
Two months earlier, five mysterious drones fell within a government experiment with nuclear weapons in Nevada, blunt officials.
“Because of the use of drones in Ukraine, we see that drones pose a real risk to be used as a weapon system against goals,” Gray told Fox News Digital. “Even drones at Hobbyn level can be adjusted to wear explosives or other types of hazardous substances that can be used to cause all kinds of problems for people on the ground.”
Military officers are also confronted with the increasingly difficult task of determining where the drones come from. Norad’s Radar Systems Were developed during the Cold War, making them poorly equipped to detect and identify drones.
“Radar coverage would not cover something as little as a drone that works on heights of less than a few hundred feet,” said Gray. “So the possibility to see where (the drones) come from or where they are being restored, really depends on having an airactive that it follows, following the air or teams on the ground that work to determine where the drone is restored.”
Several federal agencies have received federal approval to prevent drone threats as raids occur more often throughout the country. (Istock)
Last month, the congress offered a number of federal agencies of the authority to prevent credible threats from drones, referring to concern about threats for military personnel and defense installations, according to a report of the Congressional Research Service.
The updated provision reveals that the US Department of Defense (DOD) is developing, acquiring and fielding of defensive counter -weapon systems (drone), such as in those systems that are able to find, identify, follow and except for adversary drones. “
In 2024, NorthCom was planned as the leading agency that coordinated the activities of the DOD with regard to the efforts of the counter-drone. The DOD, together with the departments of Homeland Security, Justice and Energy, are authorized by the congress to evaluate and take steps to protect secure assets throughout the country, implementing the joint Counter-Small UAS office.
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In a statement to FOX News Digital, the Federal Aviation Administration said that the Agency has tested drone detection and counter-drone technology at airports in recent years to determine how well different technologies work to reduce potential aviation safety risks of drones. ”
Gray wants government officials to offer American citizens transparency and expand their response to mysterious observations. Although the federal government works to get its technology up to date, civil servants have a number of options to tackle the problem.
“One of the best things (civil servants) can use a drone is another drone,” Gray told Fox News Digital. “There are some small, very fast drones that can be used that can be used to try to intercept and disturb the drone by simply beating it. Shotguns are a last ditch-type old technology. ”
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As consumer drones flood the markets, an increase in drone raids can be expected, and civil servants climb to go for The growing threat.
“We are just going to see a proliferation of drones everywhere,” said Gray. “That includes the possibility that drones are used for nasty purposes.”
Fox News Digital reached the Pentagon.
Danielle Wallace from Fox News Digital has contributed to this report.
