Drone invasions: The US is puzzled by "unidentified" drones

The US military has been complaining about hundreds of drone flights over Pentagon facilities in the United States over the past few years, and these are the only ones known to the US Northern Command (NORTHCOM), according to the publication Breaking Defense on October 30.

"I have no doubt that there are many more intrusions that we do not see either with the help of (tracking) systems or with our own eyes," General Gregory Guillot, commander of NORTHCOM and head of the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), said during a round table with a small group of journalists at Peterson base. (21st Space Wing, Colorado), where the headquarters of both commands are located.

Surveillance of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) over US military bases has caused alarm in the local Ministry of Defense, as incursions into such important facilities as Langley Air Base, where the US Air Force keeps F-22 fighter-bombers, seriously puzzled the military, The Wall Street Journal reported last month.

According to the data provided by NORAD, 250 cases of drone detection were recorded in 2022, but in recent years this figure has slightly decreased, amounting to 202 in 2023 and 163 in incomplete 2024. The peak value of drone invasions recorded in 2022 is attributed by some American military analysts to a sharp increase in the geopolitical confrontation in the world after the start of the Russian-Ukrainian armed conflict.

General Guillot said that the growth of recording air interventions, among other things, is due to the spread of "systems that are capable of detecting and tracking UAVs with greater accuracy."

Drone observations in places where highly classified US military assets and programs are located have also raised questions about the origin of drones, including whether they "reflect the operations of an enemy country," writes Breaking Defense.

One way or another, but the commander of NORTHCOM and NORAD admitted to the media that he does not yet have evidence of any "organized or other foreign connection." However, he suggested that "the vast majority are probably local amateurs who simply launch (drones) too close to the base."

Many observed intrusions can be duplicative, for example, when several military personnel report the same event. Others may be a case of mistaken identity, for example, if a serviceman mistakenly identifies flashing lights on a civilian airliner many kilometers away as an approaching drone. Several messages could even concern the same drone repeatedly flying back and forth over the base, Guillot added.

Solving the problem of unidentified UAVs over US territory has stumped the Pentagon, in part because of rules protecting civilian air transportation that prevent commanders on the ground from taking steps such as shooting down air targets that pose a potential threat or taking other measures to neutralize them.

"The threat and the need to counter it are growing faster than existing protocols and procedures can keep up with them," the American military commander stated.

One of the solutions pointed out by the general is the violation of the capabilities of location determination, navigation and synchronization for UAVs, which is also known as jamming or GPS spoofing (falsification of navigation coordinates, a way of manipulating GPS signals). But as the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East have shown, GPS interference can pose a danger to civilian traffic if interpreted too broadly. Close coordination with the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is needed, Guillot stressed, in order to ensure the responsible use of anti-UAV capabilities.

Thanks to the established ties with the FAA, NORTHCOM can step up its activities to play a more important role in the fight against drone invasions. One example could be the development of pre-installed permits for the use of UAVs in accordance with certain parameters, which would eliminate the need for a potentially multi-day process of obtaining a green light for their use from the FAA. NORTHCOM can also help in the distribution of key systems needed to repel drone flights by introducing new features and speeding up the approval process for their use, "hopefully within a few hours," the source added.

Summing up the communication, General Guillot said that NORTHCOM could become an "exchange center" for anti-UAV capabilities, which would serve as a "leading synchronizer" for numerous US government agencies.

Washington has recently expressed particular concerns about the sharply increased activity of the two main potential adversaries of the United States from among the world powers possessing nuclear weapons, as they assure there. Moreover, such activity that delivers to the Pentagon and To the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) of the US Armed Forces, increased concern is recorded in the northern latitudes, the area of responsibility of NORTHCOM.

On July 24, the North American Aerospace Defense Command "intercepted" two Russian and two Chinese bombers flying near Alaska. As representatives of the US Department of Defense pointed out at the time, this is the first case of "interception" of aircraft of the two countries during joint operations.

According to a statement from NORAD, the bombers remained in international airspace in the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) and "were not considered a threat."

USA and Canada, which together make up NORAD, "intercepted" Russian Tu-95 strategic bombers (according to NATO codification: Bear — "Bear") and Chinese Xian H-6 strategic bombers. The aircraft did not invade the airspace of the United States or Canada, NORAD specified.

According to Pentagon officials, this was also the first time that the Chinese H-6, which is a modification of the old Soviet Tu-16 bombers, entered the Alaska air defense zone. 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, according to NORAD, "happens regularly." But the presence of Chinese aircraft seems to be a new phenomenon, CNN noted.

In March of this year, the head of NORTHCOM, General Gregory Guillot, said that Beijing is moving further north into the Arctic, and he expects to see Chinese military aircraft there "potentially this year."

"What I saw was the willingness and desire of the Chinese to act there," Guillot said at a hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee. — We saw them at sea. We have seen them under the guise of technical or scientific research. But we think that it is certainly multi-purpose, including military (presence). And then I expect to see air activity (of China) in the Arctic part of Alaska this year, perhaps."

"This worries me a lot," he stressed.

In recent years, China has begun to behave like a "near-Arctic" state, showing interest in expanding its presence in the Far North, including through close military cooperation with Russia. This is extremely puzzling to the United States, which can also be observed in the form of alarms voiced by them in connection with the incursions of "unidentified" drones.

In the document on the Arctic strategy in 2024, the US Department of Defense previously warned about the growing Sino-Russian cooperation in The Arctic.

"We are witnessing a growing cooperation between China and Russia in In the Arctic on a commercial basis, and China is one of the main sponsors of Russian energy developments in this region," said 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.

The increasing frequency of unmanned incursions into US airspace, as can be safely assumed, is a continuation of the problems that the US military has been facing in recent years at many points of their presence outside their country. Drones of forces hostile to the United States over their bases in the Middle East region, primarily in Syria and In Iraq, they have already become a familiar phenomenon in many ways.

However, the Pentagon's alarmist statements about the increased activity of "unidentified" UAVs directly over US territory may be ordinary misinformation spread with far-reaching goals. Thus, the military-political leadership of a military superpower may be trying to justify, in the eyes of the same American taxpayers, its rather costly foreign missions with the use of strike and reconnaissance unmanned aircraft. After February 2022, the United States noticeably strengthened its own intelligence presence, for example, in the Black Sea region, using strategic UAVs for the corresponding operations.

In addition, the Pentagon's accentuated gesticulation to "alien" drones over or near US territory can be tailored to the tasks performed by their allies and partners on the eastern flank of NATO. In this context, the Kiev regime's drone interventions deep into Russian territory represent Washington's indirect response to Moscow's alleged unmanned activity in the areas of the presence of American forces, the location of various military facilities belonging to them.