By The Epoch Times | Created at 2026-08-18 02:02:15 | Updated at 2026-08-18 04:23:07
3 hours ago
A top North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) official warned on Aug. 13 that U.S. military bases were “ill-equipped” to defend against swarms of small attack drones.
Speaking at the Space and Missile Defense Symposium in Alabama on Aug. 13, Army Lt. Gen. Joseph Jarrard said U.S. bases lacked sensors needed to detect swarms of small drones.
Jarrard is the deputy commander of U.S. Northern Command and vice commander of NORAD’s United States Element.
He warned that small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) were quickly spreading across the open market. He told the Space and Missile Defense Symposium that the systems pose a growing security threat when placed in the “hands of malign actors.”
Jarrard also said that NORAD did not have the sensor coverage, authorities, and decision speed needed to respond to small drone swarms.
He said the U.S. military’s biggest issue defending against swarms of such drones was detection.
“We don’t have the sensors, and depending on where that swarm is going to attack, [it] depends on whether we have any sensors at all, and also whether we’ve got any effectors to get after that problem,” he said.
“So we are ill-equipped right now to handle something like that, and obviously we’ve seen it used. We’re seeing it used on a daily basis around the world, and we’ve got to figure out how to mitigate that threat, but we’re not there yet.”
Jarrard said defense against UAS threats would require federal authorities working together with local law enforcement agencies.
Referencing the recent partnership between federal and local authorities during the World Cup, he said officials had to be interoperable with the systems it uses to defend against threats and communicate with one another.
“That’s where we’ve got to get to with respect to the interoperability between not just military systems, but also those that are protecting our cities, critical infrastructure, etc., that are off our installations,” Jarrard said.
The Epoch Times reached out to NORAD, the Pentagon, and the White House for comment but did not receive a response before publication time.
The Department of War established the Joint Interagency Task Force 401 in Aug. 2025 to quickly deliver capabilities to counter threats posed by small UAS technology, protect U.S. national airspace, and defeat adversary threats.
The task force released a guide in July for countering UAS technology.
It noted that once a drone was overhead, “the most important decisions about protection and countermeasures have already been made or, as it were, missed.”
Army Brig. Gen. Matt Ross, director of the Joint Interagency Task Force 401, previously said that while there was “no silver bullet to protect against drones,” the United States could mitigate potential threats by establishing a layered defense.
“We have faced novel challenges before, and we should not be intimidated by this one,” Ross said. “We should lean in and take every possible step to prepare ourselves to dominate on the modern battlefield.”
In February, the task force launched an online marketplace for military commands to procure counter-UAS defenses.
“The marketplace is a critical step forward in our whole-of-government approach to countering the threat of unmanned systems,” Ross said.
The Trump administration’s proposed $1.5 trillion defense budget for fiscal year 2027 includes $20.6 billion for the advancement of counter-unmanned systems capabilities.
Over the past few years, U.S. military bases have been repeatedly targeted by drones, with an influx of drone sightings near bases and airports resulting in the Federal Aviation Administration banning some drone flights in December 2024.
During an interview last week with Katie Miller, wife of White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that reports of unidentified anomalous phenomena flying over U.S. military bases should be taken seriously.
“I don’t know who it is. I don’t know what it is. But there are things flying over our military installations, and they’re not ours, and we should look into this,” he said.
