Why the US Military Can’t Just Shoot Down Mystery Drones

“By all indications, [small unmanned aerial systems] it will pose a safety and security risk to military installations and other critical infrastructure in the future,” Air Force NORTHCOM Commander Gregory Guillo told reporters at the time. “Reducing those risks requires a dedicated effort from all federal departments and agencies, state, local, national and regional communities, and Congress to develop the skills, coordination and law enforcement necessary to detect, track and address potential sUAS threats to the country. “

But US military officials also indicated to reporters that the types of counter-drone capabilities the Pentagon might be able to bring to bear on homeland defense may be limited to non-kinetic “soft kill” methods such as RF and GPS signal jamming and other low-level . -technological deterrents such as nets and “wire traps” due to legal restrictions on the US military’s ability to operate drones on American soil.

“The threat, and the need to deal with these threats, is growing faster than policies and procedures [are] in the area can be compatible,” as Guillot told reporters during the counter-drone test. “Many of the jobs we have in our country are of a high standard as they are legalistically difficult. It is a very civilized place. It is not a place of war.”

Defense officials heard the idea when the Pentagon’s new anti-drone strategy was unveiled in early December.

“The home country is a very different place because we have a lot of recreational aircraft here that are not a threat at all, they are kind of choking the environment,” a US official told reporters at the time. “At the same time, we have, from a legal point of view and from an intellectual point of view, accordingly, [a] a more tangible place in terms of our ability to do.”

The law in question, according to defense officials, is a specific subsection of Title 10 of the US Code, which governs the US armed forces. The section, known as 130(i), includes military authority over “the protection of certain areas and assets from unmanned aircraft.” It gives the US military the authority to take “action” to protect against drones, including measures to “interfere with the control of an unmanned aircraft system or unmanned aircraft, without prior authorization, including disabling an unmanned aircraft system or unmanned aircraft by intercepting, interfering with, or causing interference with communications, verbally , electronic, or radio communications used to control an unmanned aerial vehicle system or unmanned aircraft” and “use reasonable force to disable, damage, or destroy the system of drones or drones.”