The growth in the availability and use of small drones is a serious security problem for nuclear weapons facilities. In a highly publicized incident, drones invaded the airspace of a French nuclear power plant in 2015. ISIS is beginning to employ weaponized drones on battlefields in the Middle East. If a drone loaded with explosives entered the grounds of a U.S. nuclear weapons facility, it could cause serious damage. In the U.S., the Pentagon is working on the problem of securing U.S. nuclear weapons against drone attacks.
The Pentagon has been concerned about drone surveillance or attacks for several years. Last September, General Robin Rand, head of U.S. Air Force Strategic Command said that on several occasions small drones had been seen hovering around nuclear weapons facilities. Around the same time the Secretary of Defense, Ash Carter, made a public comment about his concern over the threat of small drones near nuclear bases.
General John Hyten, the head of the U.S. Strategic Command, has just issued new guidelines for nuclear weapons security against the threat of small drones. General John Hyten told the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee yesterday that last week he had issued orders on how forces should respond if an unidentified drone entered the airspace of any military facility such as an airbase, a submarine base or an ICBM missile field.
General John Hyten said "I've signed out guidance to my forces to give them kind of parameters on how they should respond if they see a threat UAV or a surveillance UAV, and to give them specific guidance so that it — so a young Marine at Kings Bay or an Airmen at F.E. Warren doesn't have to worry about, 'what should I be doing when I see that?'"
“If you watch what is happening overseas in [Syria and elsewhere] with the use of lethal UAVs and the use of UAVs for surveillance on the part of a terrorist adversary -- I'm very concerned that those same kind of UAVs could be employed against our weapon storage facilities, especially on the nuclear weapon storage facilities” Hyten told the Congressional committee.
The exact nature of the new "guidance" is classified. Hyten's deputy, Vice Admiral Charles Richard, told a reporter for Defense News after a speech at the Navy League Sea Air Space conference. "The details are best not discussed in public. Gen. Hyten basically made it clear to those commanders what authorities, what they are allowed to do, and removed some level of uncertainty from that. He’s been pressing us very hard for that, and I think for very good reasons, and I’m happy we were able to finally get something to his satisfaction."
Unfortunately, it has been difficult to coordinate all the agencies that need to be involved to deal with possible drone incursions. With respect to the U.S. military, North American Command, Strategic Command, the Air Force and the Navy all need to be involved in dealing with the problem. Outside of the U.S. military establishment, the Federal Aviation Authority, the Department of Energy, the Department of Justice and other law enforcement agencies must be also be involved.
Civilian Drone with Camera:
