How to Respond to the Next Drone Panic

Recent mysterious sightings of suspected drones over New Jersey, and now other states as well, are prompting understandable confusion and anger from American citizens.

Last week some lawmakers made remarkable claims, such as New Jersey Rep. Jeff Van Drew’s allegation that the drones came from an Iranian “mothership” in the Atlantic Ocean, an allegation the Pentagon quickly denied. Meanwhile, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas denied that the sightings of unmanned aircraft systems, or UAS, “pose a national security or public safety threat or have a foreign nexus.”  

Over the weekend, President-elect Donald Trump stated that “For some reason, they”—presumably, the Biden administration—“don’t want to comment … Our military knows.  Our president knows. … I can’t imagine it’s the enemy, because if it was the enemy they’d blast it.”  (Trump refused to confirm whether he received classified briefings on the subject.)

On Tuesday,  a joint statement by the DHS, FBI, Federal Aviation Administration, and military concluded that they had “not identified anything anomalous and do not assess the activity to date to present a national security or public safety risk over the civilian airspace” in New Jersey, while admitting that UAS were sighted in restricted military airspace over the state and elsewhere.

It’s now clear that some concerned and sincere—but untrained—civilian observers identified normal flights by manned aircraft as drones. While we tend to see more of what we look out for, it’s equally clear that trained observers such as New Jersey police officers sighted actual UAS. The federal government has provided drone-detection equipment to New Jersey and New York, and an airport in New York state shut down runways temporarily on Friday after the FAA alerted officials about a drone sighting. 

Perhaps these drones belong to clueless or mischievous hobbyists, but as best anyone outside of government can tell, authorities remain genuinely perplexed about the provenance of these UAS.

l served in DHS, the CIA, and the Army—including leading an interagency group staffed by law enforcement, the intelligence community, and the military; in the Pentagon office providing support to civil authorities; and as an intelligence enabler for special operators. I have a good idea of the government’s resources relevant to this problem, and legal authorities to use them. Here are some ideas about the threat, and what to do about it next time.

First, the threat’s real. There are increased reports of UAS of unknown origin operating without authorization around U.S. military bases and exercises at home and abroad. Dozens of drones of unknown origin repeatedly penetrated restricted airspace above Langley Air Force Base in Virginia for weeks this fall. That’s unacceptable.

We know from the 2023 spy balloon incident that China maintains the capability and intent to operate airborne platforms over sensitive sites in the U.S., a provocation for which Beijing suffered no publicly known consequences. Since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, Moscow’s intelligence services ramped up violent covert action programs on our NATO allies’ territory and have conducted increasingly aggressive surveillance on U.S. soil. Iran has plotted to assassinate Trump in retaliation for killing Qassem Suleimani in 2020. Terror groups use drones, too.

Some speculate that suspicious activity in Jersey is related to classified U.S. government activities. I doubt it. The Pentagon tests experimental aircraft, but does so in coordination with the Federal Aviation Administration, which issues temporary flight restrictions available to any pilot. The CIA and special operators conduct exercises in American cities, but they notify law enforcement. Lawful CIA operations within the U.S. are typically shared with the FBI; anything drawing unintentional publicity would necessarily be disclosed by the agency to the bureau.

Several rumors centered upon a hunt for a stolen nuclear device or missing radiological material, perhaps even in the hands of terrorists. The National Nuclear Security Administration quietly and securely moves the military’s atomic weapons around the country for maintenance. Any Nuclear Emergency Search Team “render safe” operation regarding a terrorist device would be coordinated between the Defense, Energy, and Justice Departments.  FBI-led Joint Terrorism Task Forces including state and local detectives would be involved, as would radiological sensors provided to municipalities by federal grants, and eventually uniformed police patrols as well.

There is a military program investigating unexplained aerial phenomena (UAP): aircraft recorded on vital military sensors that exhibit performance characteristics we do not understand. This UAP issue is no laughing matter. It’s important and serious, but differs from drones moving slowly across New Jersey skies.

Some senior elected officials of both parties, briefed on the federal response in New Jersey, expressed their deep dissatisfaction. The frenzy about drones in New Jersey may be waning, but future drone incidents are inevitable. There are ways the government can be better prepared.

The military—including state National Guard units under governors’ control—fields air defense, air traffic control, and target acquisition radars that could be usefully deployed. (I served in such a radar unit as a lieutenant.) Navy ships possess even more powerful radar. The armed services, again including the National Guard, possess thousands of aircraft which, in low-altitude patrols, could simply follow drones to wherever they must eventually land, and inform law enforcement. This wouldn’t likely be a military search or seizure in violation of the Posse Comitatus Act. Airborne warning and control aircraft could coordinate any such operation.

With the attorney general’s emergency approval, in coordination with the Federal Communications Commission, electronic and signals intelligence could discover where UAS are controlled from, on what frequencies and what commands are given to them. With further FCC permission, electronic warfare jammers could block communications to the drones, possibly causing them to automatically land.

In an abundance of caution, because of Fourth Amendment concerns, sophisticated imagery satellites are turned off when passing over the U.S. They’re sometimes turned on, however, at authorities’ request to monitor wildfires or analyze storm damage, for example. Request to turn them on—let’s see good photos of whatever’s flying the next time this happens.

Shooting down a drone would be dramatic, but it wouldn’t be illegal. Certainly, as on 9/11 the president held the authority to authorize shooting down an airliner full of passengers, he or she may lawfully shoot down a UAS. President Biden did eventually order the shootdown of China’s spy balloon, safely over the ocean, by an Air Force F-22 fighter.

This kind of operation isn’t without danger to civilians on the ground; with luck perhaps newer, less kinetic “counter-UAS” technologies may suffice. But I’d trust a special operations sniper in a hovering helicopter to safely shoot down a slow-moving drone.  Special mission units in Afghanistan and Iraq regularly conducted vehicle intercepts, in which snipers in helicopters shot out the engine blocks of speeding automobiles carrying high-value targets sought for capture and interrogation. Coast Guard snipers flying helicopters over the Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, and eastern Pacific Ocean routinely shoot out the motors of drug smugglers’ fast boats skipping across the waves. And when it comes to anything flying over the U.S., Coast Guardsmen are also, legally speaking, law enforcement officers.

Once a drone is recovered, the FBI, police, and prosecutors could get a judicial search warrant to do an in-depth forensic examination of the UAS for digital data, DNA, old-fashioned fingerprints, serial numbers, and more.  (Drones weighing over a half of a pound are required to be registered with the FAA.)  With those leads, shoe-leather detectives can take it from there.

There are very good reasons to keep the intelligence community and armed services out of domestic law enforcement: The Founders didn’t want that, statutes limit their participation, they’re not trained for it, and it distracts them from their core mission of defending against foreign adversaries. But it’s not yet clear that what’s happened over New Jersey and especially Virginia was entirely domestic in nature.

There well may be an innocent explanation to some recent drone activity, and many of the reports were obviously well-intentioned but false. Yet given threats from China, Russia, Iran, and terror groups, and Americans’ growing unease, next time let intelligence agencies and the military help law enforcement get to the bottom of who is flying suspicious drones in the night skies.