As a new form of warfare develops, the United States is especially vulnerable to large-scale drone attacks, according to multiple experts.
Ukraine’s stunning drone attack against Russian nuclear bombers has underscored the United States’ own vulnerability to drone attacks.
On June 1, Ukraine carried out Spiderweb, an audacious attack on air bases deep inside Russian territory. The operation concealed drones in wooden sheds loaded onto trucks that were delivered by unsuspecting drivers to the perimeter of the bases. The roof panels of the sheds were then remotely lifted off, allowing the drones to fly out and begin their attack.
More than 100 drones armed with explosives were deployed, and they damaged or destroyed 41 percent of the country’s strategic cruise missile carriers, according to Ukraine officials.
Far away from that conflict, thousands of drones breach U.S. borders every month, while others fly over sensitive sites within the country.
Mexican cartels are known to carry out many of the border incursions, while foreign adversaries are behind a smaller, but far more worrisome number of the incursions over sensitive military sites and critical infrastructure.
Goods shipped into ports could pose a security risk, as well, said Michael Lucci, founder of the security agency State Armor.
“China is putting thousands of containers into our ports and then into our country every day. I mean, the vulnerability there is almost incomprehensible,” he said.
An executive order signed by President Donald Trump on June 6 addresses the growing threat of “criminal terrorists and foreign misuse of drones in U.S. airspace,” Michael Kratsios, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, said during a press briefing.
Sebastian Gorka, Trump’s senior director for counterterrorism, said at the briefing that the executive order was in response to a flurry of drone sightings over New Jersey beginning last year, but also because of the drone warfare playing out in real time.
“Anyone can go online right now and just look at footage from … Ukraine,” Gorka said. He added that the timing of the order couldn’t be better “given what we witnessed with the remarkable drone operation that occurred just a few days ago in Russia.”
