Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
Federal officials face an imminent threat of foreign citizens Using drones To monitor the military bases of the United States after two recent arrests and a series of mysterious incursions suggest that the country’s airspace is poorly equipped to handle technology in rapid evolution.
At the end of 2024, the Department of Justice announced charges against Yinpiao Zhou, 39, for allegedly flying a drone Vandenberg space force base in California and taking photos of the installation. The Chinese-American citizen was arrested when he tried to board a flight to China and it was loaded with Violation of the National Defense Air Space and the lack of registration of an airplane.
“Anyone who operates a drone about a restricted space, as a military base, would be subject to prosecution,” said Ken Gray, former FBI agent and military analyst, Fox News Digital. “A foreign national operation (a drone) raises a concern that this person is involved in some kind of spying or intelligence collection.”
Federal officials are working to adjust the agency’s responses after two foreign citizens were arrested by flying drones on military sites. (Jens Büttner/Picture Alliance through Getty Images)
A sworn statement revealed that Vandenberg drone detection systems recorded Zhou drone flying on November 30, 2024. When the base authorities tracked the origin of the drone to a nearby park and faced Zhou and a second individual, he allegedly tried to hide the drone in his shirt.
Two months later, a Canadian tourist was arrested for allegedly flying a drone on a Defense installation in Florida.
Federal prosecutors claim that Xiao Guang Pan, 71, used a drone to photograph sensitive defense facilities at the base of the Cape Canaveral space force, According to the DOJ. PAN supposedly took photos of ammunition bunkers, space launch complexes, a underwater dock and installation of payload processing while flying its drone in three separated days in January.
Chinese citizen accused of flying to drones about the US Key Army
(Reuters/Joe Skipper/Archive)
“The answer to (drones) is not standard,” Gray said. “Depending on the place where the drone is seen, his response could be anything, from just taking note of him to trying to detect where the drone comes, and the success of such answers has really varied drastically.”
A series of high -profile mysterious incidents pushed the drones to national attention as public speculation grew.
In February, the highest -ranking general for all aerial defenses in North America led to Congress to sound the alarm by dire drones that flew over the United States, two months after a swarm of drones caused havoc on New Jersey’s Heaven for weeks.
“The general’s comments provide more evidence than the Biden National Security team was derogatory and minimized the risks presented by the mysterious drones seen throughout New Jersey, especially those that flew on sensitive sites within my own district, such as the Naval Armas Station Earle,” said representative Chris Smith, RN.J. In a press release.
While the White House insists that the drones seen throughout the state of the garden were “authorized to be flown by FAA by research and several other reasons,” revelation has done little to calm the concern of the Americans.
The General of the Gregory M. Guillot Air Force, commander of Northcom and NORAD, expressed concern about the influx of mysterious drones that fly throughout the American airspace, specifically on sensitive military sites. The four -star general cited generalized reports of drones that are infiltrated in locations classified throughout the country in their attempt to increase the heat of legislators’ response to increased sightings.
(J. David Ake/Getty images/file)
“The main threat that I see for them in the way they have been operating is detection, and perhaps surveillance, sensitive capacities in our facilities,” Guillot said at a hearing before the Senate’s armed services committee. “There were 350 detections reported last year in Military facilitiesAnd that was 350 in a total of 100 different facilities of all kinds and security levels. “
Last year, the Virginia Langley Air Force base was helpless since the drones invaded the previous skies during 17 nights, according to a report obtained by The Wall Street Journal.
Two months before, five mysterious drones invaded the skies on a site of government nuclear weapons experiments in Nevada, disturbing officials.
Mysterious drones could be identified faster using a new detection tool, but FAA lacks resources
“Due to the use of drones in Ukraine, we see that drones represent a real risk of being used as a system of weapons against the objectives,” Gray told Fox News Digital. “Even drones at a hobby level can be modified to transport explosives or other types of dangerous substances that could be used to cause all kinds of problems for people on the ground.”
Military officers also face the increasingly hard task of determining where drones originate. NORAD radar systems They developed during the Cold War, making them badly equipped to detect and identify drones.
“The radar coverage would not cover something as small as a drone that operates at altitudes of less than a couple of hundreds of feet,” Gray said. “Therefore, the ability to see where (drones) originate or where they really recover depends on having an air asset that is tracking it, after the air or the equipment on the floor that operate to determine where the drone is recovered.”
Multiple federal agencies has been granted federal approval to counteract drone threats as incursions become more common throughout the country. (Istock)
Last month, Congress provided a series of federal agencies for the authority to counteract the credible threats of drones, citing concerns about the threats raised for military personnel and defense facilities, according to A report of the Congress Research Service.
The updated disposition reveals that the United States Department of Defense (DOD) is “developing, acquiring and forming defensive weapons systems (drones), as in those systems that can locate, identify, track and intercept adversary drones.”
In 2024, Northcom was scheduled as the main agency that coordinated the operations of the Department of Defense with respect to the contracate efforts. The Department of Defense, together with the National Security, Justice and Energy departments, have been authorized by Congress to evaluate and take measures to protect safe assets throughout the country, implementing the Joint Office of UAS against Counter.
No signal, no problem: the intelligence firm debuts Tech drone tech equipped to beat GPS Jammers
In a statement to Fox News Digital, the Federal Aviation Administration said that the agency “has been testing drone detection and counter-draon technology in airports in recent years to determine how well the different technologies work to mitigate possible safety risks of aviation raised by drones.”
Gray wants government officials to provide transparency to US citizens while expanding their response to mysterious sightings. While the federal government works to obtain its updated technology, officials have a variety of options to help deal with the problem.
“One of the best (officials) you can use against a drone is another drone,” Gray told Fox News Digital. “There are some small and very fast drones that can be operated that could be used to try to intercept and interrupt the drone simply hitting it. The shotguns are a last type of old technology. ”
Click here to get the Fox News application
As consumer drones flood markets, you can expect an increase in drone incursions, and officials are fighting The growing threat.
“Let’s see a proliferation of drones everywhere,” Gray said. “That includes the possibility that drones are used for disastrous purposes.”
Fox News Digital contacted the Pentagon.
Danielle Wallace of Fox News Digital contributed to this report.
