The U.S. is vulnerable to a devastating attack aimed at knocking out American warmaking capabilities.
On Sunday night, CBS’s 60 Minutes aired a story that should cause every American who has followed recent events in Iran and Russia to be very, very concerned.
In December 2023, swarms of drones began appearing over Langley Air Force Base in Hampton, Va. Witnesses and video evidence confirm that — for 17 consecutive nights — dozens of drones invaded the airspace of one of the most important American air bases on the East Coast.
As CBS reports, General Mark Kelly, a now retired four-star, was the highest-ranking American officer to lay eyes on the swarms over Langley: “A veteran fighter pilot, Kelly went up to the roof of a squadron headquarters for an unobstructed view of the airborne invaders,” where, he says, “what you saw was different sizes of incursions of aircraft.”
You saw different altitudes, different air speeds. Some were rather loud. Some weren’t near as loud. . . . The smallest, you know you’re talking about a commercial-size quadcopter. And then the largest ones are probably [the] size [of] what I would call a bass boat or a small car.
Again, this went on for 17 consecutive days, after which the drone sightings suddenly ceased. Alarmingly, while bases such as Langley have advanced radar and surveillance systems installed for their defense against high-altitude aircraft and missiles, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and most domestic military installations do not have the kinds of systems required to track small, low-flying drones.
U.S. officials have not ruled out the possibility that a foreign actor was responsible for the events in Virginia. The Air Force was so concerned about the incident at Langley that it redeployed F-22 Raptor fighters that are normally stationed there.
As many no doubt can recall, in the past few years similar incidents have been reported over sensitive civil infrastructure and at military installations in New Jersey and other locations around the country, including in the vicinity of U.S. naval vessels off the coast of California. And we should of course remember that in recent months, both the Ukrainians and the Israelis have used drone swarms to target Russian and Iranian air bases and air defense networks in surprise attacks. In both cases, the drones were clandestinely transported close to the normal security perimeters of the Russian and Iranian bases — and then launched with devastating effect.
What is the United States doing about this brave new world? As CBS reports, “a year ago, Gen. Gregory Guillot — a combat veteran — took control of NORAD and NORTHCOM.” He reportedly “ordered a 90-day assessment of operations and says the drones — or UAVs — at Langley became the centerpiece” of that investigation.
“I think the threat got ahead of our ability to detect and track the threat,” General Guillot said in an interview. “I think all eyes were, rightfully, overseas, where UAVs were being used on one-way attack to attack U.S. and coalition service members. And the threat in the U.S. probably caught us by surprise a little bit.” CBS reports:
This past November, Gen. Guillot was given the authority to cut through the red tape and coordinate counter drone efforts across multiple government agencies. He says new, more sensitive radar systems are being installed at strategic bases, and NORTHCOM is developing what it calls fly-away kits with the latest anti-drone technology — to be delivered to bases besieged by drones.
That’s very welcome news, but Americans ought to understand that until those systems are deployed, the United States is vulnerable to a devastating Pearl Harbor–style attack aimed at knocking out American warmaking capabilities in the opening hours of hostilities. Would anyone be surprised if Beijing was planning to replicate the Ukrainian or Israeli operations by using a hostile drone swarm to go after the B-2 bombers stationed at Missouri’s Whiteman Air Force Base? And while, in a year or two, we may have decent protection for our most sensitive military installations, does anyone doubt that the Hoover Dam and the recently completed Vogtle nuclear energy plant in Georgia, to take just two examples, would still be vulnerable?
If we’re not thinking along these lines, we need to.
“There’s a perception that this is fortress America: two oceans on the east and west, with friendly nations north and south, and nobody’s gonna attack our homeland,” retired General Glen VanHerck, a former commander of NORAD and NORTHCOM, told 60 Minutes. “It’s time we move beyond that assumption.”