Pentagon lacks clear drone policies at military bases, report finds

In December 2023, approximately three weeks away Unidentified drones The flyover over sensitive areas at Langley Air Force Base exposed a problem U.S. officials were not prepared to deal with: determining who is responsible for investigating incursions — and who has the authority to act.

A new Pentagon Inspector General report indicates that these same gaps in authority and coordination remain unresolved in most divisions of the War Department, even as… Drone activity near US military installations It continues with astonishing frequency.

The IEA report warns that The Pentagon lacks clear and consistent policies That governs counter-drone operations at local facilities, leaving many bases unsure whether they are allowed to respond when drones appear in the sky. These findings reinforce what defense officials and outside experts have warned for years: While the military can often detect drones, confusion over jurisdiction, approval processes and legal authority can delay — or prevent — action.

The report warns of “immediate attention [is] Required” to protect War Department assets from unmanned aircraft systems, citing unclear policies, conflicting directives, and lack of operational approval at many installations.

Pentagon report warns bases still ill-equipped to handle drone strikes. (Raul Arboleda/AFP via Getty Images)

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Michael Helander, CEO of Airspace Link, said the inspector general’s findings reflect challenges he saw while working with military bases and civilian authorities on drone airspace awareness.

Airspace Link works with the FAA, municipalities, and select military installations to track authorized drone activity, flag unidentified drones near bases, and improve coordination across civilian and government airspace.

“When we read the document, we noticed that these are the issues that we are starting to resolve with some of these military bases,” Helander told Fox News Digital. “It’s a matter of understanding the rules and regulations of each base — whose drones they have — and airspace awareness is a real issue.”

Determining whether a drone is near a permitted military facility, misdirected or potentially hostile is often less about detection technology and more about coordination in crowded local airspace, Helander said.

The Pentagon is exploring counter-drone systems to prevent incursions into national security facilities

“There are tools. The techniques exist,” he said. “It’s just that they don’t have the frameworks, and it seems to vary from base to base.”

The Inspector General’s report found that the War Department failed to provide clear and consistent guidance on which facilities qualify as “covered assets” eligible for protection against drones, resulting in conflicting lists across the Department. In some cases, high-value bases performing critical missions were excluded because their activities did not fall neatly within the narrow mission categories defined in federal law. The watchdog concluded that these policy loopholes left many facilities unsure whether they were permitted to act during drone strikes.

The scope of this issue is far from isolated. Drone activity near War Department facilities occurs almost daily, U.S. Northern Command commander Gen. Gregory Guillot said during a roundtable last year.

The report warns of “immediate attention [is] Required” to protect War Department assets from unmanned aircraft systems, citing unclear policies, conflicting directives, and lack of operational approval at many installations. (google maps)

“We conduct one or two incursions a day” into War Ministry facilities, Gilo told reporters.

Confusion often intensifies when drones appear outside the base perimeter, where military authority intersects with airspace regulated by the Federal Aviation Administration and local law enforcement, Helander said.

“What happens if there is a drone outside the fence line?” He said. “Most military bases have no jurisdiction there.”

Modern drone identification tools — including systems that detect remote identification signals, radio frequency, radar and optical tracking — can determine where a drone originated and whether it is registered. But without uniform rules governing who operates those systems and how information is shared, detection alone does not translate into timely decisions, Helander said.

“If you have these technologies together, you can start to figure out where the drone came from,” he said. “It’s just a matter of making sure that these rules have a framework to follow.”

Modern drone identification tools — including systems that detect remote identification signals, radio frequency, radar and optical tracking — can determine where a drone originated and whether it is registered. (Istock)

The Inspector General also found that the approval process required for installations using counter-drone systems is fragmented and cumbersome, with different military services following different procedures. In many cases, facilities must purchase and test the systems before getting a license to use them — a hurdle that has led some bases to forego seeking approval altogether, even after experiencing incursions.

Pentagon leadership last year created Interagency Task Force 401 to better coordinate counter-drone efforts across the department, but the oversight body concluded that the recommendation to consolidate policies and authorities remains unresolved.

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Improving situational awareness and coordination will become increasingly urgent as civilian, commercial and public safety drone operations expand near military installations, further complicating the already congested airspace environment at low altitudes, Helander said.

“Getting their house in order first – understanding who travels, where, and under what authority – is the starting point,” he said.