What is Threatening Military Installations?

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There are growing concerns in the US that terrorists and spies could use remotely piloted unmanned aircraft for surveillance, espionage and attacks, from monitoring troop movements, supply levels to training exercises inside military facilities.

The Defense Department detected nearly 100 unauthorized drones flying near the Pentagon over a two-month period in 2017, according to officials involved in a survey of drone activity near military bases.

The study follows a Federal Aviation Administration ban of unauthorized drone flights over 133 military bases. The purpose of the study was to determine if drones were flying over bases and start a discussion about the threats those aircraft could present to military installations.

Drone-detection equipment was deployed last year at two bases near the nation’s capital — said Michael Howard, public affairs director at Myer-Henderson Hall. “We detected 95 instances of drone activity,” he told stripes.com. “We did not attempt to determine the nature of the drone activity, whether it was recreational or something else.”

Both bases are less than two miles from the Pentagon and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and inside the 15-mile radius inner ring of a “no drone zone” where those flights are banned “without specific FAA authorization.”

Airspace security company Dedrone helped the DoD conduct the survey. The company’s sensors monitor radio signals from remotely piloted aircraft and can determine their manufacturer, model and distance, many of the drones detected near the bases were small models that are readily available to consumers.