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I have focused on this issue above all else in my career. I care deeply about it. The failure of the DoD to foresee what was totally foreseeable, with obsessions with yesterday's threats is such a failure. We need to educate our non military leaders on what this is, a huge issue
The biggest challenge with this issue is education. Many just don't take the time to learn the ins and outs of the UAS threat, there are many layers and nuances, emerging technologies. There are high up people in the military that don't even really understand these basics. Then
We have produced hundreds of articles on this issue and those surrounding it. Many hundreds, but some critical reading that pulls from a lot of it:
CRITICAL piece from 6 years ago:
This is where we are currently at in terms of homeland defense which is very alarming:
We have broken every drone incursion over US bases story ever posted but one that I am aware of. For years we reported on this when nobody else would or believed it.
And our most important naval assets as well:
A couple bases that are high risk are trying to do what they can:
Finally, the most important read of them all because the problem is about to get way, WAY worse:
we are very lucky to have the opportunity to learn from others on the receiving end. I pray that we learn fast before it's too late!
Basically any and all stationary infrastructure is a target.
Electrical substations, water treatment plants, dams and reservoirs, centralized shipping hubs, air and sea ports, etc.
Not just your aircraft - think of the bridges and energy infrastructure around New York City through to Liberty Airport and tell me it is safe against an all-in attack. The next Pearl Harbour will be downtown U.S.A.
They're not in denial. The drones we've seen around US bases the last couple years is the military/intelligence services training for attacks like these. That is super super obvious.
Honestly taking out our aircraft via drone swarms would be the least of our worries. Taking out a couple of dozen substations would completely wreck the grid for months if not years.
I really do not believe anyone wants to directly awaken the sleeping giant. As far as terrorist attack vulnerability it's there but as part of statecraft??? I think that's not coming any time soon.
My thoughts too. China probably has sleeper systems already in the US to do this exact same thing.
Our most prized aircraft are basically useless in modern combat and we should lean heavily into a drone fleet.
And when people talk of golden or iron dome is a waste of money we should show them what happened in Russia.
Drones are definitely demonstrating a pivotal and disruptive time in military history.
It would certainly be a grave mistake for any country not to recognize this emerging threat!
Unexplained drones over our military bases cannot be excused. If one of our nases is surprised by an aerial attack it will be unforgivable.
The warrior spirit starts in training, but MUST carry through in planning and maintaining security in garrison here at home.
Not easy to address in a rush. Dispersal (“Dec. 7th, 1941”), hardened shelters, and defensive measures. To some limited degree these can (and should) be put in place immediately. Not an easy or quick problem to solve - and this IF everyone in leadership takes the threat
proposed a National Intelligence Estimate for this to include conventional drones, perhaps some unknown advanced drones, and “unidentified anomalous phenomena”—and…crickets. Congress is asleep. Good luck to us. It will be 9-11 all over again before our reps wake up.
They'll unveil the 300 programs they've been working on to combat drone incursions but none of them will ever be realized.
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They’re already here.
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VoxDemosthenes
@VoxDemosthenes
Replying to @mercoglianos
A ChiCom version of these are already emplaced outside of every US military base, port, & airfield. There is a reason they bought all that farmland & property near bases. A neglected prime target is the aerial refueling fleet; how many of them live in hardened shelters? This
and the massive number of shipping containers crossing our border just became the means for moving entire armies of drones into position right in plain sight.
Most people don't comprehend the device in their hand is $30 million dollars of 1990 computing power.
Drones warfare is leveling the field for non-peer opponents. It is bad news for great powers.
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Chuck Petras
@Chuck_Petras
.@SecDef Just like the Civilian Marksmanship Program (CMP) we need a Civilian Drone Operators Program...
"You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind every blade of grass" - Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto
linkedin.com/posts/scottbue
Whiteman AFB. where the B-2 Bomber is housed has 14 HARDENED SHELTERS not sitting ducks
Diego Garcia has 4 shelters
Diego Garcia has 4 shelters
Most shipping containers don’t have a hatch on top. Easy to spot. But yeah we need to get on top of that
Here's the reason: they are obligated to be out in the open due to nuclear arms treaty, and apparently ours are a well:
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General Mike Flynn
@GenFlynn
ATTENTION!
So, it appears Zelenskyy gave the go ahead to attack parked Russian nuclear capable bombers without informing @realDonaldTrump (if true that our President was not consulted nor informed, this isn’t simply a breach of protocol. It’s a geopolitical insult and a warning
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Part of a good defense against this is low tech. Look into how the defense plants were protected and camouflaged during WWII.
The whole idea of concentrating assets in just a few locations automatically renders them vulnerable. It was true at Pearl Harbor and it’s true today.
Elon tried to make this point but since he stated it poorly all this community - which prides itself on “sounding the alarm!” - did was talk about how stupid you think he is.
Anyone who knows anything about drones and plays clash of clans understands this.
All our aircraft need to be parked under a suitable cover to prevent this. Immediately. Same for critical infrastructure. Cost of doing business just went up
China would eliminate huge chunks of our Air Force and Navy in any opening attack.
Yes. Definitely Chinese sleeper cells in the US. Sounds far fetched but it’s not.
Whatever the jihadis are calling themselves nowadays…or the cartels…or Chinese special forces…could make a lot of problems just parking these next to airports
Good thing the US doesn’t have any of them running loose in the country 
One can easily imagine a scenario where China secretly inserts thousands of drones across the U.S. and then uses them to destroy our fleets of B-1s, B-2s, B-52s and F-22s just before invading Taiwan.
Why aren't these aircraft stored in hardened concrete shelters that are secure
Great point Tyler,
China drones from merchant ships could decimate Trillion$ in US military aircraft with one night attack
Navy ships too. Small drones with explosives hit the radar arrays, destroy them and the ship is out of action for months or years.
Operating tanks in combat without local air support (protective drones), storing aircraft out in the open without protective air cover (more low level drones, cable nets, AA, CAP), and leaving vital infrastructure unprotected is as wrong today as it was in 1944.
Agreed. While it’s great that Ukraine could successfully pull this off for the defense of their country, this should be a huge wake up call for the US. If we are to support Taiwan, China would do exactly the same type of operation.
1)The US is not at war with a capable and determined neighbor. That in itself cannot be used as an excuse for not advancing anti-drone capabilities.However, the nature of invasions of the airspace of US military installations is completely different, and you know that very well.+
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This is also why we NEED to support, and learn from Ukraine!
They are sitting at the forefront of actual modern warfare, while we attempt early-GWT aerial dominance to move ahead. That total dominance may not be reality in a future where 25%+ of assets can be lost in an hour.
3/ that's just my 2 cent, I didn't mean this to be provocative or degrading in any way. My point is just that saying that this could have happened is like saying that humanity is a sitting duck to a race-exterminating meteor at any second.
2/ Russia would have had to know when, where, how, and have to lockdown vehicular movement and deploy AD measures, some of focused on Ukraine right now, and they would have had to lockdown a perimenter in a way to prevent Drones from having both the range and mobility.
The west mostly turned away from AAA after the cold war, it's something that will have to find its way back as part of the counter to this growing threat.
I agree completely with you Tyler but my question is, do you think the Ukrainians came up with this and executed it on their own or is it possible parties in the US military apparatus know about this vulnerability and wanted to use against our adversaries first?
Well they also aren't as prized anymore if drones can take them out like that though right? We need more drones
It's different. You are a democracy. Everyone is happy in the US, no injustice, no exploitation, every citizen goes out of their way to help fellow citizens and non-citizens to build a just society, a role model for the rest of us
Not just our aircraft. Power plants, water, food and hospitals. Highways. All can be taken out within hours by someone with the money, brains and the will to do it.
How would HAS help? They'd just attack aircraft during taxi, takeoff or landing.
With the amount of foreign tourists we have here and laws that make taking pictures of anything you can see from public legal I pray we have already thought of that but it also wouldn’t surprise me if somebody pulled it off
Hardened shelters were an obvious thing to build years ago, did those in power really lack the imagination to imagine such an attack? Lots of exposed air assets out there around the globe.
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Wooltiger Herder
@Wolltigerhueter
Replying to @Osint613
Yeah, they want them to see it, that shouldn't be an excuse not to build more hardened shelters though.
I presented this technology to the RCAF at Trenton airshow in ~2016. Set up a booth, wanting to demonstrate the exact systems used in this attack. ZFG. Not a single officer stopped in to chat.
But they did confiscate the utility knife I had in my GCS trailer. Because dangerous.
The irony of the situation is that Russia claimed they were positioned as a leader in this form of asymmetric warfare through systems like Klub K but nobody ever talked about how they would defend against it. I am concerned about how Russia responds.
The pivotal event was the Israeli pager operation. This is simply another version of that. How many containers sitting in our ports or running down the highways on trucks driven by non English speaking drivers are actually this. Iranians have missile systems in containers now
The aircraft in the pic looks like the “Bear,” one of their propeller driven long range bombers.
Just as well the US’ main strategic rival doesn’t import many consumer electronics and drones into the country so pallet loads of this sort of thing arriving will be fairly easy to spot…. Oh…
- some great original resource articles in this thread- kamikaze attack defenses need to be dusted off-guns, lots of guns
Really need to up the counter drone tech at all bases and build up netting to prevent drones from being able to reach target
Cheyenne Mountain like aircraft bases deep in granite mountains. No matter how much it costs.
Now, the CCP interest in aquiring land close to US military bases and critical infrastructure makes more sense.
Made possible by the triators, they also fund at the State and Federal level.
I warned about this in 2006.
I gave examples of extreme security concerns around the Norfolk naval base, specifically.
They said they knew.
Which wasn't exactly comforting.
This also has implications on other parts of nuclear triad, esp. subs and mobile launchers ( in Russian case ).
Perhaps someone at DoD can explain how “Golden Dome” would stop something like this?
I drive by northrop buildings all the time. They're unprotected which I always find crazy as hell. This has been a long time coming for somebody.
COPE CAGES ON THE HANGARS NOW!
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Tyler Rogoway
@Aviation_Intel
For over a decade I have outlined the exact scenario as we just saw in Russia. It could happen in the U.S. tomorrow. This was a pivotal event. U.S. military and political leadership cannot live in partial denial of this threat anymore. Our most prized aircraft are sitting ducks.
US getting Pearl Harboured?
It could never happen, ever.
The Universe is in awe of America, so they could never attack.
The US military always has had a strong preference for offense and an aversion to defensive systems. I think it is cultural, as putting resources into defensive systems means that you cannot count on your offensive power projection to protect you, making you look/feel weak.
I think everybody's aircraft hanging outside of their hangars are sitting ducks. Pack your aircraft boys, the drones have arrived.