Why The Pentagon Struggles With The Dark Side of Electric Aviation – CleanTechnica

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It’s easy to think that electric aviation is something that’s happening tomorrow. Air taxis, eVTOL craft, rescue pods, aerial ambulances, and such are coming in the near future. Full-on cargo and passenger airliners might happen later when battery technology improves, but, as I’ve explained before, electric aviation is already here! Not only are small remote-controlled airplanes and quadcopters displacing manned flights powered by fossil fuels, but they’re also making access to the skies more affordable, leading to cost savings and even saved lives.

Sadly, though, this technology isn’t all innovation, pretty drone videos/photos, and search and rescue. There’s a dark side to the technology that the war in Ukraine made all too clear. Small drones can drop grenades, killing and maiming. They can be used to direct artillery and anti-tank missile fire. They can also be used to deliver larger explosive charges, destroying refineries and reducing the emissions of countries like Russia in the most violent of ways.

We’re only now starting to see the vast potential of this technology, for both pleasant and violent purposes. Because small drones are basically throw-away stealth aircraft (they’re too small and low-flying to really show up), even the United States military, with all of its gadgets, is struggling to deal with swarms of drones over bases on its own soil.

In recent weeks, drone incursions over U.S. bases made big news. Instead of worrying about drones on some future battlefield American personnel might face, the threat came home—al the way home. Almost a year ago, drones of a variety of sizes and flying at different altitudes in formations were spotted, and not much could be done about it. Some were even quite large, with wingspans of about 20 feet and moving at speeds of about 100 MPH, so we’re not just talking about consumer quadcopters.

Along these flights, which happened a while after sunset, the drones would pass over sensitive things like hangars for the F-22 (the top fighter jet the USAF has today), headquarters for Seal Team Six (they need no introduction), and a bunch of other sensitive locations that the government doesn’t want people spying on, or worse, attacking. 

It’s not known who flew the drones, but it’s known that the drones were not shot down. But, this leaves a big question: why not?

Part of the problem is that it’s more widespread than just one military base. It took until March of 2024 (months later) for this problem to become public knowledge, when military personnel testified in front of Congress. After a 90-day study, military brass found out that there were many other drone incursions over the United States, including at sensitive test ranges in Nevada (near Area 51). 

Military bases weren’t the only targets for swarms of large drones. Law enforcement officials spotted large swarms in Colorado and other nearby states, and sensitive sites like the Paloverde Nuclear Generating Station near Phoenix, Arizona. What set the drone sightings apart in Virginia was that the drones were too large and operating in too complex of a way to be civilian-operated commercial drones.

But, one thing that is common to many drone sightings is that the composition of the swarms often includes a large drone (referred to as a “mothership”) and smaller quadcopters surrounding it and perhaps escorting it. These drones would also make multiple loops over target areas, sometimes going in loops until midnight before disappearing into the darkness.

Another big challenge is that there’s almost no early warning. The larger drones could be picked up on radar, but the smaller “escort” drones were almost never detected. Radar arrays protecting military bases are much better than air traffic radars that wouldn’t pick up a small drone, and would pick up most commercial drones. But, radars typically filter out small objects to avoid being tripped up by things like birds.

Opening the radars up to detect small objects like this wouldn’t work, largely because there’s so many harmless things in the sky. Birds, garbage blowing in the wind, photographers lawfully flying drones for legal purposes dozens of miles away, and many other things would keep the military impossibly busy if it was decided to check on every single radar return.

What about following the drones to find the pilots? That didn’t work out, either. Land-based searches are tough because police vehicles can’t keep up, and aircraft avoid flying near drones for safety purposes. One ship in international waters seemed suspicious, but the Coast Guard found nothing when boarding officers searched the vessel. Even after 17 days of trying, nobody could find the pilots or figure out who owns them. They could have come from anywhere within 25 miles.

While there are things that these drones could be doing that are harmful (spying, testing defenses, etc), shooting them down isn’t a great choice because US law prohibits this. It’s technically possible to shoot the drones down, but if you do, bad things could happen. If pieces of a drone were to fall on a child, for example, nobody would be happy with the idea. Life is more valuable than national security, especially when the drones didn’t present an immediate physical threat. Just like the balloon that was only shot down after going over the ocean, the risk isn’t acceptable.

The other thing that stops this is the separation of law enforcement from the military. Dealing with wayward or snoopy drones in the airspace is a federal civilian authority. Were the military to participate in what’s essentially a law enforcement action without presidential authorization (required by the Posse Comitatus Act), this would be a violation of the law and the general principle of the military being subservient of civil authorities.

If the drones had been a physical threat, military personnel are authorized (like any human in the United States) to defend themselves with reasonable amounts of force. 

Finally, spies running clandestine operations with drones aren’t stupid. They’re going to run large drones that perform the task, but they’re not going to run things that a civilian couldn’t get in the United States. If they get caught, they can claim to be an overzealous amateur or misguided professional drone operator. They’d still get in serious trouble, but they wouldn’t give up who they were working for.

One Chinese drone operator, in the US under a student visa to attend college half way across the continent, got caught running a drone over a ship yard that builds naval ships. When the drone got stuck in a tree, he chose to abandon it instead of retrieve it when confronted by police. Instead of going back to school, he instead immediately attempted to leave the United States, leading to his arrest after NCIS got their hands on the drone and found spy photos on it.

It seems pretty obvious what the guy was doing, but proving that he was in the employ of the Chinese government and not just an idiot working alone is tough. Foreign adversaries have a nearly unlimited supply of other people they can get a student visa for, so this is a game of whack-a-mole that would never end. 

One final possibility is that the drones could be a secret U.S. team that’s out to demonstrate the weaknesses of the United States military, but there’d be no way to prove that. Regardless, these types of incursions do need to happen to make sure that people are on their toes.

Featured image by DARPA (Public Domain).